Hillary Calls on Sanders to Stop Smears: ‘Enough is Enough’

Friday on MSNBC, Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton was interviewed by Andrea Mitchell and Clinton doubled down on calls for her rival Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) to stop his “artful smear, innuendo and insinuation” that she can be bought because of her Wall Street connections.

Partial transcript as follows:

MITCHELL: His argument about Wall Street, it seems to be penetrating. It stuck. How do you counteract that? Are you willing to release the transcripts that were under your control? They were part of your transcripts, you own them. Transcripts of all your speeches?

CLINTON: I said I would look into that, but I want to get to what’s really behind this. What’s behind this is, I made speeches, when I left, as many people do, other former officials…

MITCHELL: Sorry you did it?

CLINTON: No, I’m not. I thought it was a good way to communicate what I was seeing in the world and answer questions about that and I think it was a useful exercise for me, because it also enabled me to think through where I was in the assessment of what I would do next. So, no, but here’s what’s really going on. This is an effort by the Sanders’ campaign to basically say, anybody who’s ever taken a donation, not just from Wall Street, if you take it to the natural conclusion, from anybody, is bought and paid for. That is absolutely untrue. And I know that the American people have every right to ask those questions, and I have every right to answer them. I’m the one who went to Wall Street before the crash and said you guys are wrecking the mortgage market and it’s going to lead to a big crisis. I’m the one who advocated for CEO compensation changes. I’m the one who has the toughest, most effective plan to take on Wall Street. I’m actually not — I’m not in any way advocating we just keep doing the same things over and over again, because that won’t solve our problems. And despite my best efforts, I can’t get Senator Sanders to agree to join me in actually having a broader, more effective effort to rein in financial abuse.

MITCHELL: Well, do you really think he is smearing you?

CLINTON: “I think his campaign, which he claims to be a positive campaign, has engaged in artful smear, innuendo, and insinuation, and enough is enough. That’s what I made clear yesterday.

Follow Pam Key on Twitter @pamkeyNEN