Hillary Clinton singled out Wells Fargo again as a prime example of the financial industry run amok, and she stressed Monday at a campaign rally in Ohio that she is committed to putting an end to Wall Street’s supposed cowboy culture.
“It is outrageous, that eight years after a cowboy culture on Wall Street wrecked our economy, we are still seeing powerful bankers playing fast and loose with the law,” she told a crowd in Toledo, Ohio.
She added to loud boos, “consider the recent examples we’ve seen of egregious corporate behavior: look at Wells Fargo. Really shocking isn’t it?”
Wells Fargo is embroiled in a scandal in which thousands of bank employees secretly opened accounts for customers to overcharge them.
This isn’t the first time that Clinton has mentioned Wells Fargo by name while talking about reining in Wall Street. In September, she penned an open letter to the victims of the recent banking scandal.
“In America, we have faith that when we open up a checking account, we aren’t opening ourselves up to being scammed. Whether you use a local credit union or community bank or one of the big national chains, we take it for granted that those institutions are fulfilling this basic responsibility to their consumers,” the letter read.
Wells Fargo CEO John Stumpf, who testified last month before the Senate Banking Committee, owes the bank’s victims a “clear explanation,” Clinton’s letter stated. “There is simply no place for this kind of outrageous behavior in America.”
On Monday, Clinton kept after the theme that Wall Street is a cesspool, and that she is committed to cleaning it up.
“I want to send a clear message to every board room, every executive sweet across America: If you scam your customers, exploit your employees, pollute our environment or rip off taxpayers, we will find ways to hold you accountable,” she told Ohio voters.
“But on the others side, if you do the right thing, and you invest in your workers and your communities, and our country’s future, we will stand with you. That is the choice. Our goal is to make it easier for everyone to do better,” she said.
The Democratic nominee’s promise to get serious about bringing Wall Street to heel comes even as questions about her own ties to top financial firms continue to dog her campaign.
Clinton’s campaign manager declined recently to say whether her administration would go specifically target members of the financial industry.
“I don’t know what to say,” Robby Mook said in a CNBC interview. “We are 100 percent focused on trying to elect Hillary Clinton, on earning votes, on getting our supporters out to vote. This is beyond premature right now.”
Clinton promised recently that going after the super wealthy, which includes members of the financial industry, would finance her policy proposals.
“I’ll tell you how we’re going to pay for it,” she said in August, referring specifically to her economic agenda. “We’re going where the money is. We are going after the super wealthy, we are going after corporations, we are going after Wall Street so they pay their fair share.”
Clinton has been under pressure from Democrats to pursue a more progressive agenda, especially after Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., gave her a close primary race with a platform of higher taxes and an expanded federal government.
The Democratic presidential candidate has also been criticized for claiming she will be tough on Wall Street, even after members of the financial industry, including Goldman Sachs and Bank of America, have compensated her handsomely for paid speeches.
