It turns out Ken Langone is not actually that sorry for comparing the fight against income inequality to the tactics employed by Nazis in the 1930s.
The billionaire founder of Home Depot had apologized shortly after making the comparison in March. But in an interview published Monday, Langone instead tried his best to defend those remarks.
“I pointed to the election in Germany in 1933 that brought Hitler to power,” Langone told Capital New York. “He came to power through a totally democratic process. So I simply said that just because we’re a democracy that doesn’t mean we can’t do bad things!”
Langone continued.
“I was speaking about a democratic process which we have here,” he said. “My connection was we never want to put ourselves in a position as a nation where we pit group against group. It had nothing to do with de Blasio or Cuomo or the president or anybody else. I only cited the election that took place in 1933. And I only said the product of that election was the election of an evil horrible human being!”
And he still wasn’t done.
“I simply said just because we’re a democracy doesn’t mean you can’t have bad results,” Langone said. “That’s all! I stand on what I said.”
In a March interview with Politico, which owns Capital New York, Langone said he hoped the latest populist push fails.
“I hope it’s not working,” Langone said at the time. “Because if you go back to 1933, with different words, this is what Hitler was saying in Germany. You don’t survive as a society if you encourage and thrive on envy or jealousy.”
Langone subsequently apologized “to anyone and everyone who I may have offended,” but that wasn’t the first time he spoke candidly about what he perceives as unfair treatment of the superrich.
Langone, a top Republican donor, expressed concern in December that Pope Francis’s criticism of capitalism could cause wealthy Catholics to stop giving to the church.
