Hillary Clinton is under fire after invoking 9/11 to defend her relationship with Wall Street

Democratic presidential front-runner Hillary Clinton came under scrutiny from both Democratic and Republican opponents after highlighting her experience during the September 11, 2001, attacks on the World Trade Center. 

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:

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."

NOW WATCH: The worst US war conspiracies that were actually real

Please enable Javascript to watch this video