Clinton landed a nice right hook on Sanders when she brought up the fact that he voted to deregulate derivatives—twice!—which contributed more to the economic collapse of 2008 than the repeal of Glass-Steagall did. Sanders, never the most nimble debater, let it go—it was an unquestioned win for Clinton, a rarity for her on economic policy.
But while she’s been on the attack for most of the night, she continues to struggle to explain her connections to Wall Street. Moderator Rachel Maddow gaver her an opportunity to own the narrative when she asked, “Have you been too dismissive of voters’ concerns about your wall street connections?” But Clinton fumbled the ball again. Clinton responded as if she was there on a speaking tour for a travel memoir—like she had written a globetrotting, more badass version of Wild—saying that she was there to talk about her experience around the world. She namedropped Osama bin Laden, as if the bankers were asking her questions about Seal Team 6 and not, you know, derivatives.
Most remarkably, Clinton said she “went to Wall Street before the crash & told them they’re going to wreck the economy... with these mortgages.” To her credit, Clinton did make early warnings about subprime mortgages. But saying that she went to Wall Street to tell them they were going to “wreck the economy,” instead of to “make a ton of easy money” is absurd.
guess it's hard to just come out and say, 'it's ridiculously easy money and i wanted to make a lot of it, fast'
— John Harwood (@JohnJHarwood) February 5, 2016