Fox Business host Charles Payne attributed a plunge in the stock market on Monday to Sen. Bernie Sanders‘ (I-VT) current momentum in the presidential campaign.

After America’s Newsroom co-host Ed Henry asked whether the sell off was “all coronavirus or is this the first time the market’s were open since Bernie Sanders took control of the Democratic battle,” Payne replied that “the Bernie factor is finally rearing its head in the stock market.”

“Molina Health, one of the biggest health insurance in this country, is down eight percent. United Health is down over six percent,” he explained. “Anthem is down five percent. Hospital stocks are getting hit.”

Upon being asked by co-host Sandra Smith whether the drops could really be attributed to Sanders,” Payne responded, “Absolutely… There’s absolutely no doubt.”

“Now these stocks got hammered when Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) was in the lead, and when she had her biggest point of leading in the polls, all of these stocks were under an extreme amount of pressure,” he declared. “She began to wane and some of these names… came out with great earnings estimates. They’ve rebounded pretty nicely.”

“This is the first time I think Wall Street is taking Bernie Sanders very seriously,” Payne concluded.

Payne is not the only analyst to have claimed Sanders is a threat to the stock market, with billionaire hedge fund manager Leon Cooperman saying last week that Sanders worries him more than the coronavirus.

“I look at Bernie Sanders as a bigger threat [to the stock market] than the coronavirus,” Cooperman claimed. “I don’t have any insight into the coronavirus, but I assume, with all the great minds of the world focused on this problem, that in three or four months this will become resolved.”

“There are things that are very troubling to me. No. 1 is Bernie Sanders,” he continued, adding, “He is not a socialist. He is, rather, a communist… I just hope the country isn’t ready to elect a communist or a socialist. If we do, I think the market is in store for a big problem.”

Former Goldman Sachs Chief Executive Lloyd Blankfein has also claimed Sanders will “ruin our economy.”

Watch above via Fox News.

This article has been updated to include comments from Leon Cooperman and Lloyd Blankfein.

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