unable to run visual studio code as root on RHEL8

I cannot start Visual Studio Code version 1.42.1 as root on Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8.1 I have tried using the recommended path:

root# *code --user-data-dir="~/.vscode-root"
root# *code --user-data-dir=/usr/foo/bar*

I am running Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8. Is it possible to configure root access from inside Visual studio or has anyone else got a working command from Redhat Enterprise Linux 8 cli?