Bernie Sanders: Jamie Dimon didn't criticize socialism during Wall St. bailout

Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders took aim at Jamie Dimon after the JPMorgan Chase CEO criticized socialism in a public appearance on Wednesday.

Addressing a Business Roundtable event in Washington, Dimon denounced the idea of the government owning and controlling companies, saying they would be used for political reasons instead of economic reasons. The scenario over time would lead to “huge deterioration,” Dimon said, adding, “The whole notion that that’s somehow going to be the course for America is a huge mistake.”.

The banker’s comments drew a quick rebuke from Sanders. The Senator from Vermont and self-described democratic socialist fired back 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.”

The tweet came ahead of a speech by Sanders at George Washington University on Wednesday defending democratic socialism “as the only way to defeat oligarchy and authoritarianism,” according to a description from his campaign. 

A spokesperson for JPMorgan Chase did not immediately return a request for comment. 

Dimon has previously stated that JPMorgan Chase only took bank-bailout money from the U.S. government during the financial crisis in 2008 because it was asked to do so by government officials who feared that more vulnerable Wall Street competitors that needed bailouts could be singled out and suffer large-scale customer withdrawals of funds.