Watch: Hillary Pressed On Wall Street Ties, ‘You’re Indebted To Some Of Its Biggest Players’

Democratic presidential candidate and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was pressed on her ties to Wall Street and was told she was “indebted to some of its biggest players” by moderator John Dickerson during Saturday’s Democratic presidential debate on CBS.

Hillary was asked about fellow Democratic candidate Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) remarks that voters should be suspicious of a candidate who had received a large amount of money from Wall Street, and “How will you convince voters that you’re going to level the playing field, when you’re indebted to some of its biggest players?

Hillary responded by pointing to hedge fund managers who were running ads against her, her record in the Senate, and her “very aggressive plan to reign in Wall Street.”

Sanders responded that Hillary’s answer was “Not good enough.” He continued, “why, over her political career, has Wall Street been a major– the major, campaign contributor to Hillary Clinton? Now, maybe they’re dumb, and they don’t know what they’re going to get, but I don’t think so.”

He added, “I have never heard a candidate, never, who has received huge amounts of money from oil, from coal, from Wall Street, from the military industrial complex, not one candidate– [who hasn’t said] oh, these campaign contributions will not influence me. I’m going to be independent. Well, why do they make millions of dollars of campaign contributions? They expect to get something. Everybody knows that.”

Hillary responded, “not only do I have hundreds of thousands of donors, most of them small, and I’m very proud that for the first time, a majority of my donors are women, 60%.  So, I represented New York, and I represented New York on 9/11, when we were attacked. 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. That was good for New York. it was good for the economy, and it was a way to rebuke the terrorists who had attacked our country. So, you know, it’s fine for you to say what you’re going to say, but I looked very carefully at your proposal, reinstating Glass–Steagall, is a part of what, very well could help, but it is nowhere near enough. My proposal is tougher, more effective, and more comprehensive, because I go after all of Wall Street, not just the big banks.”

Sanders then said, “In terms of Wall Street, I respectfully disagree with you, Madam Secretary, in the sense, that the issue here is when you have such incredible power, and such incredible wealth, when you have Wall Street spending $5 billion, over a 10-year period, to get deregulated, the only answer that I know is break them up, re-establish Glass–Steagall.”

Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett