Hillary Clinton is under fire after invoking 9/11 to defend her relationship with Wall Street
REUTERS/Jim Young
She invoked the attacks during Saturday night's debate to defend having relationships with Wall Street donors. That relationship had been repeatedly criticized by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont), whose campaign is primarily backed by small donors.
"I represented New York on 9/11 when we were attacked," Clinton said during the debate. "Where were we attacked? We were attacked in downtown Manhattan, where Wall Street is. I did spend a whole lot of time and effort helping them rebuild."
Clinton's comments drew a strong rebuke on social media:
Hillary Clinton mentioning 9/11 in the context of defending the banks is a cheap political trick. That's a Republican move. #DemDebate
Have never seen a candidate invoke 9/11 to justify millions of Wall Street donations. Until now. @HillaryClinton #DemDebate
- Andy Grewal (@AndyGrewal) November 15, 2015
.@HillaryClinton vehemently offers support for Wall Street as post-911 recovery effort. Does that fly?
- David Axelrod (@davidaxelrod) November 15, 2015
The debate's moderators asked her to respond to one Twitter user who took issue with her comments.
But she continued to draw fire for her comments after the debate. In a statement, Republican National Committee Chair Reince Priebus called her remarks a "bizarre attempt to deflect attention from her ties to her wealthy donors."
Lis Smith, the deputy campaign manager to former Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley (D), slammed Clinton on Twitter:
My dad worked in WTC from the day it was built to the day it went down. @HillaryClinton, never invoke 9/11 to justify your Wall St positions
- Lis Smith (@Lis_Smith) November 15, 2015
And for his part, Sanders repeatedly dug into Clinton's donors as he sparred with the former New York senator.
The two spent time speaking over each other when the moderators turned the topic to Wall Street regulation and reform.
"Let's not be naive about it. Why over her political career, has Wall Street been a major - the major - campaign contributor to Hillary Clinton?" Sanders said.
He later added: "Why do they make millions of dollars of campaign contributions? They expect to get something. Everybody knows that."
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