Former Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein has issued a plea for Democrats to nominate anyone but Senator Bernie Sanders, saying he might vote for President Donald Trump otherwise.

'I think I might find it harder to vote for Bernie than for Trump,' Blankfein, who is a registered Democrat, told the Financial Times in an interview published on Friday.

'The Democrats would be working very hard to find someone who is as divisive as Trump. But with Bernie they would have succeeded,' he added.

Sanders quickly fired back on Twitter, referring to Goldman's key role in the subprime mortgage crisis under Blankfein's tenure: 'I welcome the hatred of the crooks who destroyed our economy.'

Former Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein (above) has issued a plea for Democrats to nominate anyone but Senator Bernie Sanders

Sanders quickly fired back on Twitter, referring to Goldman's key role in the subprime mortgage crisis under Blankfein's tenure, triggering the Great Recession

Blankfein responded in a tweet of his own, writing: 'I don't have 'hatred for' [Sanders]. I just disagree strongly with policies that would have the gov manage so much more of our economy.'

'Perhaps the Sen wants to feel hated because HE hates. This time around, how 'bout picking someone who'll respect and work with all groups?' Blankfein continued.

In the Financial Times interview, Blankfein was pressed on whether he was skeptical of Sanders merely because he is a billionaire who fears a wealth tax.

'I don't like that at all,' Blankfein responded. 'I don't like assassination by categorization. I think it's un-American. I find that destructive and intemperate. I find that just as subversive of the American character as someone like Trump who denigrates groups of people who he has never met. At least Trump cares about the economy.'

Blankfein expounded upon what he found worrying in Sanders as a candidate.

'I'm not sure Bernie likes people — he's ideological,' said Blankfein. 'In my view Bernie could talk to a six-year-old kid and he is looking over their heads out to the great expanse.'

The finance mogul also expressed doubts about the Democrats' decision to impeach Trump, which ended in a Senate acquittal.

'Look, I am a Democrat, but they said those things in a shrill way to raise the stakes on the outcome,' Blankfein said. 'I don't think it's unreasonable or cynical for a legislator to have said that what Trump did was wrong, and showed bad character, but it was not at a level where we're going to overturn an election nine months before the next one.'

It was not the first time that Blankfein has lashed out at Sanders, or the similarly far-left Democratic presidential candidate Senator Elizabeth Warren.

Blankfein tweeted criticism about Sanders earlier this month on the day of the New Hampshire primary, which Sanders won.

'Sanders is just as polarizing as Trump AND he'll ruin our economy and doesn't care about our military,' Blankfein wrote. He also alleged that Russia would be supporting Sanders.

Sanders' supporters were quick to point out Blankfein's connection to the financial crisis. Goldman, which Blankfein led for 12 years, played a key role in the subprime mortgage market collapse that caused the Great Recession.

'This is what panic from the Wall Street elite looks and sounds like,' Faiz Shakir, Sanders' campaign manager, responded on Twitter.

'Let me see, a billionaire executive on Wall Street doesn't like me,' Sanders said on CNN Wednesday, when asked about Blankfein's comments. 'Hmm, I am shocked by that.'

Sanders and Warren have made fixing the country's wealth inequality a focus of their presidential campaigns.

Blankfein, who supported presidential candidate Hillary Clinton in the 2016 presidential race, has criticized the 'wealth tax' proposal floated by Sanders and Warren. The policy would be 'completely unworkable,' he said in November, because it would require annual assessments of the value of an individual's estate.