Bernie Sanders made clear Tuesday he had no plans to endorse Hillary Clinton’s Wall Street reform plan, instead taking aim at what he described as a “rigged economy.”
Trying to get ahead of Sanders on Wall Street, the Democratic front-runner’s campaign called on the Vermont socialist to back Clinton’s plan. The Clinton team also questioned Sanders’ “hands off approach” and called for him to go “beyond his existing plan and endorse Hillary Clinton’s tough, comprehensive proposals.”
Instead Sanders defended his record of being tough on Wall Street and called elements of Clinton’s plan “dead wrong.”
On stage in New York City, just blocks from Wall Street, Sanders called for reinstating the Glass-Steagall Act’s prohibition on commercial banks engaging in investment banking. Clinton opposes this idea and her husband signed its repeal while president in 1999, which Sanders said “killed” the necessary law.
In another subtle jab at Clinton’s close ties to Wall Street, Sanders said that he would only nominate and appoint people “with a track record of standing up to power, rather than those who have made millions defending Wall Street CEOs, Goldman Sachs and other Wall Street banks.”
“To those on Wall Street who may be listening today, let me be very clear. Greed is not good. In fact, the greed of Wall Street and corporate America is destroying the fabric of our nation,” Sanders said. “And, here is a New Year’s Resolution that I will keep if elected president. If they do not end their greed, we will end it for them.”
