Billionaire Donor Dumps Republicans And Says Trump 'Belongs In Jail'

Leon Cooperman, the billionaire hedge fund manager who attacked Elizabeth Warren over her idea of a "wealth tax", now says that he is DONE giving money to the Republican Party before adding that Donald Trump belongs in jail. Cooperman says that he now wants centrists to win office, people who he says are not "left or right." What's really happening is that Cooperman is afraid that the extreme shift of his Republican Party will result in more Democrats winning office which would then mean higher taxes for him, as Ring of Fire's Farron Cousins explains.

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*This transcript was generated by a third-party transcription software company, so please excuse any typos.

During an interview with CNN this week, hedge fund billionaire Leon Cooperman, who has been a loyal donor to the Republican party for years and years and years, announced that he is done. Mr. Cooperman billionaire Republican donor is done giving money to the Republican party. Oh, and by the way, he also said it would be terrible for the country if Donald Trump were reelected. He's a divisive human being who belongs in jail. No, no argument from me on that. But Cooperman says that, you know, even though again, he's given tons of money to Republicans, hell, he's, he's fought with Elizabeth Warren repeatedly over her proposed wealth tax that this country sorely needs right now, by the way. But Mr. Cooperman says that in looking for a candidate to support in 2024, even though he is given a lot of money to Chris Christie, uh, you know, he is looking for centrist, right? That's what Mr. Cooperman wants. That's what the billionaire class wants. They, they don't want anybody too far left. Definitely nobody too far, right? 'cause they think they should be in jail as well. Uh, but, you know, just somebody right down the middle, here's what he says. I'm looking for centrist, not radical, left or right.

Gee, why, why would a hedge fund billionaire want centrist to run the government? Well, the answer's obvious to, to all of us really, uh, centrist, don't do anything centrist, get nothing done. Centrist, most importantly, don't rock the boat. They don't rock the boat by raising taxes on the wealthy. No. The centrist are the ones who cut the taxes for the wealthy. And that is what Mr. Cooperman wants. He believes that if Donald Trump, of course, is the Republican nominee, it's gonna turn off people to the Republican party because of Trump's extremism. And what scares Mr. Cooperman is not the thought of Trump becoming president again. No, no, no. He got everything he wanted from Trump's first term. What scares Mr. Cooperman is the thought of Donald Trump just becoming the nominee, which of course will drive people away from the Republican party, which would result in the election of more Democrats, which would then increase the chances of one, a wealth tax like Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders have proposed. Or it could result in the current tax cuts that are still in place being repealed. A centrist wouldn't do that to poor Mr. Cooperman. Right? That's what this is about. This is not him turning his back on the Republican party. As I said, he's still giving money. He gave money to Chris Christie. Chris Christie's not gonna touch his tax breaks. And Chris Christie is sure not gonna put a wealth tax in place that's going to hurt people

Like Mr. Cooperman. No, Mr. Cooperman doesn't care about the future of the country. Mr. Cooperman only caress about the future of his finances. That is what the billionaire, the millionaire class that is all they care about. You look at these foreign conflicts, they don't care about that. They don't care about the loss of lives.