Sen. Bernie Sanders lashed out at Jamie Dimon on Twitter after the chief executive officer of JPMorgan Chase & Co. criticized socialism during an appearance in Washington.
Dimon, speaking at a Business Roundtable event on Wednesday, said giving the government control of companies allows them to be used for political purposes, leading to deterioration. He said it would be a “huge mistake” for the U.S. to go down that path.
The Vermont lawmaker, a presidential 2020 contender who calls himself a socialist, shot back.
“I didn’t hear Jamie Dimon criticizing socialism when Wall Street begged for the largest federal bailout in American history—some $700 billion from the Treasury and even more from the Fed,” he wrote on Twitter.
I didn't hear Jamie Dimon criticizing socialism when Wall Street begged for the largest federal bailout in American history—some $700 billion from the Treasury and even more from the Fed.
https://t.co/mnXyKqrjq1 — Bernie Sanders (@BernieSanders)
June 12, 2019
Dimon has previously said JPMorgan, which expanded during the crisis by acquiring collapsing rivals, didn’t need a bailout to survive. In 2012, he told the Senate his firm temporarily accepted money from a Treasury Department program because “we were asked to” so weaker rivals could tap it without being singled out.
