Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Fast Forward

Elizabeth Warren Is Fighting With A Mansplaining Jewish Billionaire

Democratic presidential frontrunner Sen. Elizabeth Warren and billionaire investor Leon Cooperman continued their war of words on Thursday after CNBC reported that the hedge fund guru had written a five-page letter to her criticizing her economic policies.

It started when Cooperman told Politico on October 23 that Warren was too anti-billionaire. “I believe in a progressive income tax and the rich paying more,” he said. “But this is the f—-ing American dream she is s—-ing on.”

“Leon, you were able to succeed because of the opportunities this country gave you,” Warren responded on Twitter later that day. “Now why don’t you pitch in a bit more so everyone else has a chance at the American dream, too?”

Apparently incensed by her tweet, Cooperman composed a letter to Warren complaining that she had “proceeded to admonish me (as if a parent chiding an ungrateful child).” After a page and a half detailing his biography, he complained in detail about her “soak-the-rich” economic policies like a 2% wealth tax, and proposed alternatives.

According to CNBC, Cooperman wrote the letter in order to try to convince voters that Warren’s policies were unsound, and ignored the advice of allies warning him that this would likely only encourage her and reinforce the perception that she is the candidate best-placed to take on the 1%.

Indeed, Warren didn’t take the challenge lying down.

“Leon is wrong,” she tweeted in response to the CNBC article. “I’m fighting for big changes like universal child care, investing in public schools, and free public college. We can do all of that with a #TwoCentWealthTax. Leon can and should pitch in more—so that every kid has the same opportunities he did to succeed.”

Cooperman, a major donor to Jewish causes, has been vocal about what he sees as the economic danger of a Bernie Sanders presidency – so much so that Sanders listed him as one of 13 billionaire “anti-endorsements.”

Aiden Pink is the deputy news editor of the Forward. Contact him at pink@forward.com or follow him on Twitter @aidenpink

A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.

Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at editorial@forward.com, subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.

Exit mobile version