Much humor has been had at Hillary Clinton's expense for saying on Saturday night that, more or less, she took a bunch of money from Wall Street as a senator because 9/11. No, really. This is Hillary responding to Bernie Sanders saying that Hillary is a candidate of the absurdly wealthy Wall Street elite who the Democratic base believes singlehandedly destroyed the economy:
So I-- 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. (APPLAUSE)
The best way to rebuke terrorists is definitely to accept tons and tons of money from hedge funds and investment banks. That'll show the jihadis who's boss!
Anyway, it's not terribly surprising that Ronda Rousey's* preferred candidate would hit Hillary on Wall Street donations given that he's a socialist and she's a literal plutocrat. And it's not terribly surprising that she'd say something remarkably dumb like "if I don't accept donations from Wall Street, the terrorists win" during the debate, because, honestly, what else is she going to say: she was the senator from New York and you don't win in New York without appealing to the bankers.
Far more amusing, though, was the first part of her answer. I'm surprised this hasn't gotten a little more attention. To recap, Bernie goes on and on about how Hillary has "received huge amounts of money from oil, from coal, from Wall Street, from the military industrial complex." Just hammering her about the people she takes money from. And how does Hillary start off her retort?
Oh, wait a minute, senator. (LAUGH) You know, not only do I have hundreds of thousands of donors, most of them small, I am very proud that for the first time a majority of my donors are women, 60 percent.
This is quintessential Clinton: deflect a factual attack about the nature of her campaign with a reminder that she has a chance to be The First Woman President, You Guys. "Why are you attacking my donor base, which isn't rich people but ladies, BernieBro? Why do you HATE WOMEN SO MUCH?" It's a not-terribly-subtle way to cry sexism without literally saying the words "you hate women for daring to oppose my ascension to the Oval Office." Given the media's remarkable preoccupation with "dog whistles" when it comes to the GOP, it's pretty surprising that no one can hear the loudest one of the cycle thus far.**
Again, her answer isn't particularly surprising: As my colleague Andrew Stiles has capably noted, a huge part of Hillary's campaign this time around (and last!) is "Hey, I have lady parts and no other president has had lady parts." But it is amusing in a horrifying and soul crushing sort of way.
*Unrelated to anything above, but: Can we stop trying to make Ronda Rousey a thing in Hollywood and go back to trying to make Gina Carano a thing? She's better than Rousey in literally every way.
**lol jk