Billionaire investor Leon Cooperman said Tuesday that he would not vote for President Joe Biden or former President Donald Trump in a hypothetical November rematch.
“We have two candidates running. One’s bad, the other one’s worse. I don’t know who’s bad, I don’t know who’s worse,” Cooperman said on CNBC’s Squawk Box.
Cooperman, the chair and CEO of the Omega Family office, has mostly backed Republicans in the past, but says he supported Biden in 2020 as a vote against Trump.
“I will not vote for Biden again. I think he’s lost his step. He’s allowed himself to be in the pocket of the progressives, which I think are destructive parties,” Cooperman said.
Cooperman, who wrote in Mitt Romney’s name for president in 2016, has been a longtime critic of Trump and said the former president belonged in jail after he was hit with more than 90 criminal charges. Cooperman was also critical of some of Trump’s policies as president and said in 2018 that the trade war he started was dangerous.
“The man has no judgment, but he understands the economy,” Cooperman said of Trump on Tuesday.
Cooperman most recently donated to the presidential campaign of former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, according to Federal Election Commission data. He has also donated to the congressional campaigns of Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin and Republican Sen. Rick Scott in recent years.
In the 2016 presidential election cycle, Cooperman gave the individual donor maximum to former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush’s campaign, but he also ended up donating to Hillary Clinton’s campaign as Trump ran away with the Republican nomination.
Biden’s campaign began the year with about $46 million in cash, according to FEC filings, more than the $33 million that Trump’s campaign had. Groups affiliated with Biden’s campaign also started the year with more money, as Trump’s affiliated committees spent almost $50 million last year on lawyers’ bills and related legal fees.
Despite Biden’s strong fundraising numbers, he has struggled in recent polls. His approval rating fell to 37% in a Sunday NBC News poll, the lowest level of his presidency. The poll also found Trump beating Biden 47% to 42% in a hypothetical 2024 rematch.