House

Ocasio-Cortez knocks JPMorgan CEO for suggesting Warren ‘vilifies successful people’

by Justin Wise - 11/07/19 8:42 AM ET

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) on Wednesday mocked JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon for suggesting that Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) “vilifies successful people” with her proposed policies.

{mosads}”Y’all, the billionaires are asking for a safe space — you know, in addition to the entire US economy and political lobbying industry,” the progressive firebrand said in a tweet just a day after Dimon made several critical remarks about Warren, one of the top-tier Democratic 2020 White House hopefuls.

Y’all, the billionaires are asking for a safe space – you know, in addition to the entire US economy and political lobbying industry. https://t.co/oJR8SZz9gJ

— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) November 6, 2019

Warren, a staunch progressive, has centered her campaign for the presidency around combatting inequality and reigning in financial excess from massive corporations. She has released a plan to install a wealth tax and has been outspoken in her calls to overhaul a system she says isn’t fair to the working class.

Her wealth tax proposal would impose a 2 percent tax on the wealth of people with more than $50 million in assets, while those with assets more than $1 billion would face a 3 percent tax.

“She uses some pretty harsh words, you know, some would say vilifies successful people,” Dimon, a billionaire, said on CNBC when asked whether Warren was anti-business. “I don’t like vilifying anybody. I think we should applaud successful people.”

He added that sweeping government policies may not solve the nation’s problems.

“The road to hell is paved with good intentions when it comes to policy,” Dimon said. “A lot of government programs have been abysmal failures, and we should acknowledge that both problems need to be fixed, and those solutions didn’t work. Let’s try something different.”

Warren fired back at Dimon’s critique in a series of tweets, stating that Dimon and other billionaires were successful because “of the opportunities, workforce, and public services that we all paid for.”

“It’s only fair that he and his billionaire friends chip in to make sure everyone else has a chance to succeed,” Warren tweeted. “The fact that they’ve reacted so strongly—so angrily!—to being asked to chip in more tells you all you need to know. The system is working great for the wealthy and well-connected, and Jamie Dimon doesn’t want that to change. I’m going to fight to make sure it works for everyone.”

Ocasio-Cortez came to Warren’s defense despite giving her highly sought endorsement to 2020 Democratic hopeful Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) in October.

This was not the first time Dimon got in a spat with the progressive lawmaker this year.

He drew criticism from Ocasio-Cortez in March after suggesting that her signature environmental proposal, the Green New Deal, would harm the economy. Ocasio-Cortez shot back at the time, saying that JPMorgan financed “major fossil fuel pipelines. It’s big money.”

Tags 2020 Democrats Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez AOC tweets Bernie Sanders Elizabeth Warren Finance Twitter