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Sanders Calls Hillary Clinton's 9/11 Answer To Her Wall Street Donations 'Absurd'

November 17, 2015

Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders (I., Vt.) hit Hillary Clinton on Tuesday for her "absurd" comment connecting her Wall Street ties to 9/11 during the Democratic debate Saturday night.

"I wouldn’t use the word offensive," Sanders said of Clinton’s answer. "I found them a little bit silly and a little bit absurd."

Sanders pointed out Clinton was asked how her cozy relationship with Wall Street power brokers, who have raised millions of dollars for her campaign, would effect her policies as president.

Clinton ducked the issue and in an odd maneuver, brought up her work to revive downtown New York as the state’s senator after the 9/11 terrorist attacks. After Sanders suggested Wall Street was donating so much money to her because they expect to get something back, Clinton interrupted the socialist from Vermont.

"Oh, wait a minute, Senator. You know, 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 percent," Clinton said. "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."

The statement drew immediate scrutiny.

"Hard to overstate how little sense Clinton's ‘I take contributions from Wall Street because they got hit on 9/11’ argument makes," Chris Cillizza tweeted.

"Wait, Hillary Clinton's answer is Wall Street supports me because 9/11?" Ezra Klein wrote.

Glenn Thrush wrote that Clinton’s answer was "nuts and indefensible."

The Free Beacon reported that Clinton received donations of nearly $1.15 million to Clinton’s 2000 Senate campaign before the attack, however, undermining Clinton’s argument.

Clinton offered an apology after a tweet was read out to her, blasting her for using 9/11, and the Clinton campaign doubled down on her remarks in the spin room after the debate.

"I am sorry if whoever tweeted that had that impression," Clinton said.

John Podesta, Clinton’s senior adviser, said it was an "unfair attack" and defended Clinton’s record on finance reform even as he was wearing a jacket with Equilibrium Capital’s logo on it.

"Clearly, as I think she’s recognized today, that has nothing to do with 9/11," Sanders said to Katie Couric.