Buffett Says Endorsement Might Hurt Bloomberg, Wouldn’t Vote For Sanders

Apparently, Mike Bloomberg’s piss-poor debate performance in Las Vegas has turned off one of the wealthiest men in America. Berkshire Hathaway Chairman and CEO Warren Buffett, the ‘Oracle of Omaha’, said last year during his annual long-form sit-down with CNBC’s Becky Quick that he liked Bloomberg, and would support the former mayor if he chose to run.

At the time, Buffett said he was partial to Bloomberg because the entrepreneur understood business, markets and – most importantly – people.

But during this year’s interview, which aired on CNBC Monday morning, Buffett sounded surprisingly lukewarm, declining to lend Bloomberg his endorsement ahead of the billionaire’s first appearance in a Democratic primary, and actually said some nice things about Bloomberg’s main rival, Bernie Sanders, before conceding that he would still probably pick Bloomberg over Sanders.

Buffett said “I don’t think another billionaire supporting him would be the best thing to announce,” in response to Quick’s question about an endorsement.

Though he added that “I’m a Democrat and would have no trouble voting for Bloomberg”

…”I don’t think I want to get into handicapping the race but I would say this in terms of Sanders: I actually agree with him in terms of certain things he would like to accomplish.”

“In terms of the fact that we ought to do better by the people left behind by the capitalist system…but I don’t think we should kill the golden goose, let’s let it keep laying eggs. But I don’t think anybody should be left behind” he said before adding that he would support changing the earned income tax credit, as well as other unspecified ‘changes’.

I would vote for Mike Bloomberg over Sanders if given the choice, says Warren Buffett pic.twitter.com/fScTuWp3SD

— Squawk Box (@SquawkCNBC) February 24, 2020

If faced with a choice, Buffett said, he would definitely support Bloomberg over Sanders…

“I actually agree with [Sanders] in terms of certain things he would like to accomplish. I don’t agree with him in many ways. But in terms of the fact that we ought to do better by the people that get left behind by our capitalist system. I don’t think we should kill the capitalist system in the process. I think we should make sure that the golden goose keeps laying more eggs. And it’s worked wonderfully since 1776…”

And on Sanders plan to force ownership of some portion of large companies to the state and mandate workers on the board, Buffett was not impressed at all…

“…I think that would be a particularly bad idea…I don’t think that putting 20% of the capitalists on a labor union is probably a good idea either. And I think the market system works very, very well in terms of developing more goods and services.”

And while Buffett was very careful not to entirely slam Sanders, his views on what direction the market would move if Sanders won was clear…

“I normally would never make a comment on something like that, but I would say that if you had Sanders and a Democratic House and Senate or if you had Trump with a Republican House and Senate there would be a significant difference.”

Though Buffett displayed a little more self-awareness than Bloomberg’s other billionaire backers (we’re talking about you, Lloyd), his words have once again illuminated Bloomberg’s biggest flaw: He’s a plutocrat, and basically a walking picture of the globalist ‘Davos Man’ that President Trump built his campaign on opposing.

Though if Buffett has his heart set on Bloomberg…we suspect he might be disappointed: