Billionaire and Berkshire Hathaway CEO Warren Buffett argued Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) would be more effective in her fight to remove Wall Street influence from the halls of Congress if she wasn’t so angry.
Buffet made the comments in an interview with Andrew Ross Sorkin on CNBC’s Squawk Box. Sorkin first asked Buffett what he thought of Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) but Buffett declined to weigh in. Then Sorkin asked about Warren and her views of Wall Street. Warren’s signature issue is uprooting Wall Street influence from the halls of Congress. She’s at times even gone against her own party over Treasury Department appointments.
“Well, I think she would be better if she was less angry and demonized less,” Buffet said. “I mean, I believe in hate the sin and love the sinner. And I also believe in praising by name, and criticizing by category. And I’m not sure I’ve totally convinced Warren that’s the way to go.”
Squawk Box co-host Becky Quick began to move to the conversation to a different question but Sorkin pressed Buffett if he’d tried to convince her.
“No, no, no and, listen, I – don’t pick her out. There’s plenty of the other candidates that their styles are not one hundred percent my style, but I do think it’s a mistake to get angry with your – with people who disagree with you,” Buffett said. “I mean, in the end we do have to work together. I mean, I think the whole nature of governing is particularly when you’ve got a divided government like we have now, is that you end up with bills that each side doesn’t like but they like it better than doing nothing.”
Buffett, in the same interview, stressed that he’s not a “card-carrying Democrat” although he votes for Democrats most of the time. In December, Buffett donated to the Ready for Hillary super PAC that wants former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to run for president.
Watch Buffet below:
