Former Vice President Joe Biden asserting himself as the front-runner in Thursday night's Democratic presidential debate was a positive development for stocks, according to CNBC's Jim Cramer.
"Last night was a really important night for the stock market" because Biden held his own against left-wing champion Sen. Elizabeth Warren, Cramer said Friday on "Squawk on the Street."
As Cramer has been reporting all week, bankers and corporate leaders are concerned about Warren's rise in the polls and they've been telling the "Mad Money" host privately that her 2020 White House bid has "got to be stopped."
The Massachusetts senator has made cracking down on banks and taxing the rich central to her campaign — striking fear in the hearts of Wall Street about a possible Warren presidency.
Warren currently trails Biden's 26.8% support by 10 percentage points, in the national Real Clear Politics polling average, but she's in a virtual dead-heat with Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders for the No. 2 position. No other candidate in the crowded field vying for the Democratic presidential nomination is even close to breaking into the top three spots.
"She didn't do as well as Biden" in the debate, said Cramer. "You'll see the banks go up." He reasoned if Biden were to remain a strong frontrunner, the progressive proposals of Warren, and Sanders, would not become reality.
"That means that we don't want to destroy the banks. We're not going to have show trials for wealthy people," Cramer said. "Perhaps we're not going to have a new group of taxes on people who make assets of $50 million."
Warren's campaign on Thursday released a proposal to increase Social Security benefits, paid for by new taxes on high-income Americans, which Cramer said that he actually liked.
That's in addition to her signature wealth tax proposal on assets above $50 million, and a new minimum tax on the profits of the largest companies, to help finance new government benefits for child care, health care, housing and education.
"Senator Warren is the person that the bank executives want stopped," Cramer reiterated on Friday.