DES MOINES, Iowa — Michael Bloomberg couldn’t resist taking a playful swing at Elizabeth Warren over her stance against the super-wealthy.
The former New York City mayor and billionaire philanthropist bumped into the senator for Massachusetts and 2020 Democratic White House hopeful on Saturday while backstage at the Everytown for Gun Safety Action Fund’s Presidential Gun Sense Forum. Bloomberg founded and continues to fund the nonprofit organization, which advocates for greater gun control.
“I just said to Sen. Warren on the way out, ‘Senator, congratulations, it’s a nice talk. But let me just remind you if my company hadn’t been successful, we wouldn’t be here today, so enough with this stuff,’” Bloomberg joked with the crowd in Des Moines, Iowa.
Warren, an ardent Wall Street critic whose presidential bid is based on rolling out “structural reform” to make the economy work for every American, didn’t directly respond to reporter questions about their exchange after her appearance at the event, which convened following the shootings last weekend in El Paso, Texas, and Dayton, Ohio.
“Look, I think we have a gun crisis and when have people gathered from all across this country to make this moment of sorrow into a moment of determination,” she said. “I applaud them and am honored to stand with them.”
In a gaggle afterward, Warren did not take the bait on Bloomberg’s comment. “Look, I think we have a gun crisis and when have people gathered from all across this country to make this moment of sorrow into a moment of determination…I applaud them & am honored to stand w/ them” https://t.co/j3NaIi3cpT
— Alex Thompson (@AlxThomp) August 10, 2019
Warren unveiled her gun control plan on Saturday morning, proposing tax hikes on gun manufacturers to 30% for firearms and 50% on ammunition. Her platform follows the release of her “wealth tax” idea, under which households with net worth’s of more than $50 million would be taxed starting at 2%, rising to 3% for billionaire households.
Bloomberg was himself considering a run for the White House before deciding against it in March.
