Had the Goldman Sachs CEO said his picks are Hillary Clinton or Jeb Bush?

By Linda Qiu on Tuesday, June 2nd, 2015 at 4:21 p.m.

A Jeb Bush-Hillary Clinton contest would be a win-win scenario for Wall Street, says former Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley.

In his presidential campaign announcement on May 30, 2015, O’Malley attacked Bush and Clinton for their supposed mutual backer, Goldman Sachs, the poster child of big, bad Wall Street.
"Recently, the CEO of Goldman Sachs let his employees know that he’d be just fine with either Bush or Clinton," O’Malley said. "Well, I’ve got news for the bullies of Wall Street: The presidency is not a crown to be passed back and forth by you between two royal families."

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One side of the aisle is clear: Blankfein has fundraised for Clinton. It’s actually his support for Bush where the evidence in lacking.

An O’Malley spokesperson pointed us to an article published in March 2015 in Politico magazine. In it, economic reporter Ben White detailed Blankfein’s close relationship with the Clintons and wrote,"Blankfein has indicated he would be fine with either a Bush or Clinton presidency."

White told us in an email that to his knowledge, Blankfein has never stated this publicly, though he’s suggested it privately, according to anonymous sources close to the CEO.

An O’Malley spokesperson pointed us to an article published in March 2015 in Politico magazine. In it, economic reporter Ben White detailed Blankfein’s close relationship with the Clintons and wrote,"Blankfein has indicated he would be fine with either a Bush or Clinton presidency."

White told us in an email that to his knowledge, Blankfein has never stated this publicly, though he’s suggested it privately, according to anonymous sources close to the CEO.

O'Malley: Either Clinton or Bush would suit Wall Street
Washington (CNN)Martin O'Malley says Wall Street would accept either Hillary Clinton or Jeb Bush as president -- but wouldn't be happy if the former Maryland governor won.

A day after the former Maryland governor and Baltimore mayor officially launched his bid for the Democratic presidential nomination with tough anti-Wall Street rhetoric, he lumped both Clinton and Bush together in an interview Sunday on ABC's "This Week."

"What we need new leadership to accomplish is to actually rein in excesses on Wall Street," he said, making reference to Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein.


http://www.cnn.com/2015/05/31/politics/martin-omalley-wall-street-clinton-bush/

NEW YORK — Forget the Democratic and Republican primaries: The two biggest names in the 2016 presidential race are competing directly against each other in an elite forum, the halls of Goldman Sachs.

Jeb Bush will be back in New York raising money next week with his sights set on Goldman, the wealthiest and most successful bank in Wall Street history. He has a pair of events scheduled for next Wednesday with current and former Goldman executives, sources familiar with Bush’s plans said.

The events signal that Bush hopes to go head to head for Goldman money and support with Hillary Clinton, who also has strong ties to the bank and is expected to raise large sums from its executives to help fund her likely presidential campaign. And it means employees of the nation’s richest investment bank are increasingly putting their money on the two best-known candidates, both of whom are viewed across Wall Street as centrists who could cool some of the scorching anti-banker rhetoric and policies emanating from the Elizabeth Warren wing on the left and the tea party movement on the right.