Bloomberg: Vote Brown or Warren could 'bring socialism back, or the USSR'

New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg is warning that a win for Massachusetts Democratic Senate candidate Elizabeth Warren could effectively mean the return of the Soviet Union.

During a recent interview with The New York Times, Bloomberg explained that he was supporting Republican Sen. Scott Brown (R-MA) because he wanted to "find liberal middle-of-the-road Republicans and Democrats."

"In the Senate, Scott Brown, who single-handedly stopped the right-to-carry [concealed handgun] bill," the billionaire mayor said. "You can question whether he’s too conservative."

Bloomberg offered the following thoughts on Warren: "You can question, in my mind, whether she’s God’s gift to regulation, close the banks and get rid of corporate profits, and we’d all bring socialism back, or the USSR."

"But the bottom line is Scott Brown single-handedly stood up when we needed him to stop the right to carry on campus and in the streets of our city and our state and our country," he added. "Now, I don’t have to agree with him on a lot of other things, although he’s certainly no crazy right-wing – he’s just more conservative than I am – but here’s a guy that really made a difference, and if we don’t support people like that, nobody’s going to take risks."

Bloomberg's argument against Warren echoed ads purchased by Crossroad GPS, a super PAC founded by Karl Rove, which has attacked the Democratic candidate over her attempts to regulate Wall Street.

Last year, a tea party supporter lost his cool at a Warren campaign event and began shouting at her for being a "socialist whore."