Clinton’s ties to Wall Street have come under scrutiny in the past months and both her challengers, O’Malley and Sanders, have sought to distinguish themselves from the former Secretary of State on this issue.
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The couple traveled to Iowa together on Saturday for the second Democratic debate in Des Moines, where challengers Bernie Sanders and Martin O’Malley knocked Clinton for what they said were close ties to Wall Street and big banks.
“So I – I represented NY, and I represented NY on 9/11 when we were attacked”, she said, referencing her time as a U.S. Senator.
“When we were attacked, where were we attacked?” “Our agenda is the most progressive in terms of demanding that Wall Street, large corporations and the wealthy finally start paying their fair share of taxes”, he said. The union’s efforts have been instrumental in getting higher minimum wages in Los Angles, New York, San Francisco and Seattle.
Clinton’s opponents are a dog with a bone with this one.
“So, I represented NY, and I represented NY on 9/11 when we were attacked”, Clinton said at the debate on Sunday.
RNC Chairman Reince Priebus denounced the suggestion as a “new low” for the Democratic candidate.
Clinton’s answer drew immediate criticism from Republican operatives and on social media.
“I was actually the only one on that debate stage on Saturday who will commit to raising your wages and not your taxes”, Clinton said at Mountain View College, a community college south of downtown Dallas. “And it was a way to rebuke the terrorists who had attacked our country”. “I don’t think they saw that as something appropriate to do – to mask her coziness and her closeness to Wall Street and all of the architects of the crash of 2008”.
The industry also supported her husband, former President Bill Clinton, during his two White House campaigns and backed her campaigns to serve NY in the Senate. “That would be like saying we weren’t at war with Nazis because we were afraid to offend a few Germans who may have been members of the Nazi Party but weren’t violent themselves”. “We need to get a consensus through this campaign, which is why I’m talking about it everywhere I go, and we need to join the rest of the advanced world in having it”.
And Sanders campaign manager, Jeff Weaver, said that Republican governors might be less a problem if Sanders is the Democratic nominee.
During the Central Iowa Democrats fall barbecue on Sunday, Clinton’s aides were put on the defensive over the controversial comment.
Sanders spokesman Michael Briggs said Sanders would help the middle class. He hit back at Clinton for her record and past statements.
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The endorsement comes far earlier in the Democratic nominating process than it did in 2008, when the union picked then-Sen.
