NOW Slams 'Sexist' Warren Buffett Comment About Elizabeth Warren

By Kevin Cirilli, The Hill

06 March 15

he president of the National Organization for Women criticized billionaire Warren Buffett's comments on Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) as sexist.

NOW president Terry O'Neill told The Hill that Buffett's remarks on CNBC earlier this week about Warren were "hypocritical."

"She would do better if she was less angry and demonized less," Buffett said Tuesday on CNBC's "Squawk Box."

"I do find Warren Buffett's comment sexist," O'Neill told The Hill. "Calling a woman angry is often a way to shut her down when she is being assertive and powerful."

In his CNBC interview, Buffett said he believes "in praising by name and criticizing by category, and I'm not sure that I've totally convinced Elizabeth Warren that's the way to go."

O'Neill said those statements don't add up.

"He claims he believes in 'praising by name and criticizing by category,' but turns around and criticizes Sen. Warren by name — not category — saying 'she would do better if she was less angry and demonized less,' " O'Neill said.

Representatives for Buffett and Warren could not be immediately reached for comment.

Buffett posted a rare tweet Thursday to support Facebook executive Sheryl Sandberg's Lean In campaign, which advocates against workplace gender bias, among other policies.

Buffett tweeted a photo with the caption: "Mary Rhinehart, a Berkshire CEO, is successfully running a $2.5B company in a male-dominated field #LeanInTogether."

It's only his sixth tweet since his first in May 2013.

Sandberg praised Buffett in an interview with ABC News on Wednesday about Lean In's new partnership with the NBA that aims at getting more men to support workplace equality.

“Warren Buffett has famously said one of the reasons he did so well was because he was only competing with half the population,” Sandberg told ABC News.

MSNBC "Morning Joe" host Mika Brzezinski said earlier this week on-air that the remarks were "sexist."

"I think that's sexist. I think it's preposterous. I think her message is angry because the middle class are angry in this country," Brzezinski said. "And she is tapping into something that they feel, and she's also extremely nice when she's talking to people about this as well."

Still, Democrats have raised concerns that the Warren wing of the party's rhetoric is too eager to demonize business.

Democracy For America founder Howard Dean told The Hill earlier this week that Warren is “right on policy, but the rhetoric needs to be toned down.”

“The rhetoric about wealth creation needs to be scaled back because Americans like wealth creation,” he added. “The level-playing-field argument wins it for us. The reason you do not want to talk about ‘tax the rich’ is because when middle-class people hear it, they hear, ‘they're going to raise our taxes.’ Democrats can't do that.”