DES MOINES, IOWA – Former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg said he sassed Sen. Elizabeth Warren for making the super rich her political punching bag.

“If my company wouldn’t be successful, we wouldn’t be here today,” Bloomberg said he told Warren backstage at an Everytown for Gun Safety event in Des Moines Saturday. “So enough with this stuff.”

Billionaire Bloomberg founded Everytown and largely pays its bills. He used that role Saturday to take the stage alongside almost every Democratic presidential hopeful to give a speech targeting President Trump.

Bloomberg recalled how the president said after the February 2018 Parkland High School shooting in Florida that he supported stronger background checks.

“And then the NRA told him to drop it, so he did — immediately,” Bloomberg said.

Earlier this week, Trump again expressed interest in getting a background checks bill passed.

“He didn’t have the guts to oppose the NRA then and now, he faces the same choice,” Bloomberg said.

The former mayor spoke of a Washington Post report that said the NRA’s Wayne LaPierre called the president this week and warned him that his backers wouldn’t support stronger background checks.

“So now the president can either find the backbone to stand up to the NRA or once again he can bow down to the NRA and kiss Wayne’s ring — or maybe kiss something else,” Bloomberg said, drawing cheers.

Bloomberg also blamed the president’s rhetoric for fomenting violence.

“There’s been a lot of discussion about whether President Trump bears some responsibility for what happened in El Paso,” Bloomberg said. “Of course he does. Words matter. Words have consequences.”

Bloomberg also pointed the finger at hate.

“It’s not just criminals and psychopaths who are gunning down people,” Bloomberg said. “Dealing with them is hard enough. But now, more than ever: It’s white supremacists trying to mass murder African-Americans. It’s xenophobes trying to mass murder Latinos. It’s Islamophobes trying to mass murder Muslims. It’s homophobes trying to mass murder the LGBTQ community. It’s anti-Semites trying to mass murder Jews.

“And it’s other hate-filled people who see automatic weapons as a way to advance their poisonous ideology,” Bloomberg added.

Bloomberg pointed to his three terms as New York City mayor and said leadership comes from the top.

“And if you say things that are racist, it sends a signal that being racist is OK,” Bloomberg said.

Bloomberg had flirted with a presidential bid himself – before announcing in March that he would stay on the sidelines and continue to use his wealth to boost Democratic candidates and causes.

“I can’t say I agree with all of them on every issue and you probably don’t either,” he said of the crop of 2020 hopefuls. “But I think we’d agree that all of them are better than the alternative.”

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