Politico reports:

Former Goldman Sachs CEO and lifelong Democrat Lloyd Blankfein told the Financial Times in an interview published Friday that he could have an easier time voting to reelect President Donald Trump than for Sen. Bernie Sanders, should the latter secure the Democratic nomination for president.

“I think I might find it harder to vote for Bernie than for Trump,” the billionaire banker said, though he pointed out that the Democratic primary has just kicked off and the nomination is very much still up for grabs. “There’s a long time between now and then. The Democrats would be working very hard to find someone who is as divisive as Trump. But with Bernie they would have succeeded.”

Blankfein, who spent 12 years as the chief executive of the banking giant — including through the 2009 recession and ensuing government bailout — before stepping down in 2018, has sparred with Sanders in the past over from the self-described democratic socialist’s rhetorical broadsides against billionaires.

The former Goldman Sachs CEO is one of several billionaires and financial industry moguls who have taken a heel turn in the Democratic primary, which features multiple candidates who have reveled in criticism from Wall Street-types amid an effort to make populist appeals to working class voters. [Continue reading…]