Sen. Elizabeth Warren appeared on Bloomberg TV Wednesday night and criticized its founder, Michael Bloomberg, for his late entry into the Democratic primary, where she has been competing for the nomination for months.
Prior to the interview, Warren bought an ad on Bloomberg TV that accused the former mayor of New York City of trying to buy the election to avoid paying higher taxes.
In the interview, she said, “I don’t believe that elections ought to be for sale and I don’t think as a Democratic Party that we should say that the only way you’re going to get elected, the only way you’re going to be our nominee, is either if you are a billionaire, or if you’re sucking up to billionaires.”
Her ad used visuals of Bloomberg and hedge fund billionaire Leon Cooperman to make that point and in it, she said, “Some people have figured out, you know, it’d be a lot cheaper to spend a few hundred mil just buying the presidency instead of paying a two-cent wealth tax.”
According to Bloomberg News, the billionaire has spent $59 million on ad time already, though he only entered the race in November.
She posted the ad to Twitter ahead of her interview, where it quickly drew attention.
I guess some billionaires figured it’d be a lot cheaper to spend a few hundred million to buy the American presidency than paying their fair share in a #WealthTax so that everyone can succeed. I put an ad on Bloomberg TV to let them know–I’m not backing down from this fight. pic.twitter.com/cULpOZYKoh
— Elizabeth Warren (@ewarren) December 4, 2019