Billionaire Michael Novogratz Claims Elizabeth Warren Is the One to Beat in 2020
Mike Novogratz told CNBC that Warren is the "best candidate on the stump," but he stopped short of endorsing the Senator from Massachusetts. | Credit: Reuters/Brian Snyder
Elizabeth Warren has a long path to the presidency. In addition to winning the hearts and minds of Democratic primary voters, Warren has to take the battle to President Donald Trump in an election that is still over a year away. But the Senator from Massachusetts got a boost on Thursday from Galaxy Digital CEO, Michael Novogratz.
Speaking on CNBC’s Squawk Box, Novogratz said Warren appeared to be the best candidate for president.
“I think [Warren] could win the election because she’s smart, she’s winning, she seems to be the best candidate on the stump.”
Novogratz stopped short of endorsing the Democratic nominee, admitting afterward that Warren wasn’t his top choice for president.
The Wealth Tax
Perhaps Novogratz would offer more support if it wasn’t for Warren’s plans to implement a wealth tax.
“I don’t think the wealth tax is the way to go.”
The Galaxy Digital CEO told the Squawk Box hosts that he prefers other forms of taxation to address inequality.
“We should redistribute, we need to redistribute…
There’s lots of ways to raise taxes. I would take capital gains and move it right up to income tax.”
Warren’s plan for a wealth tax has also faced backlash from fellow Democratic candidates . During the fourth Dem debate in Ohio, entrepreneur Andrew Yang said a wealth tax had already been attempted in Europe and failed:
“A wealth tax makes a lot of sense in principle. The problem is that it’s been tried in Germany, France, Denmark, Sweden, and all those countries ended up repealing it because it had massive implementation problems and did not generate the revenue that they’d projected.”
But perhaps Warren and Bernie Sanders needn’t worry about the critics. According to some polls , the idea of a wealth tax has a lot of support from the American electorate. One poll conducted by internet research firm SurveyMonkey found that two-thirds of Americans support Warren’s idea for a wealth tax on assets exceeding $50 million.
Unlikely support?
Michael Novogratz hasn’t always had positive words for Senator Warren. In January, he lashed out at the Senator over Twitter after she posted a tweet accusing America’s ultra-wealthy of rigging the economy.
“[It] is wholly unproductive to accuse a whole class of people of crimes with no evidence,” said Novogratz.
In the same tweet from January, Novogratz said he supported the idea of a wealth tax, which diverges from his statements on Squawk Box.
Going Forward
According to the latest Hill-HarrisX survey , Elizabeth Warren has the support of 19 percent of Democrats and Dem-leaning independents. This places the Senator eight points behind front runner Joe Biden (with 27 percent) and five-points ahead of Bernie Sanders (with 14 percent). If Warren does manage to secure the Democratic nomination and defeat Donald Trump in 2020, she will become the United States’ first female President.
In the meantime, Warren will be fighting to close the gap between herself and Biden at the next Dem debate, which is set to take place on Nov. 20 in Georgia.
