O’Malley hits Clinton’s ties to Wall Street

Democratic presidential candidate Martin O’Malley this week went directly after frontrunner Hillary Clinton’s ties with Wall Street while touting his own financial platform.

“My proposals go a lot further than Secretary Clinton’s,” the former Maryland governor said in an interview with Concord News Radio in New Hampshire on Monday discussing Wall Street reform.

“Her closeness with big banks on Wall Street is sincere, it’s heart-felt, it’s long-established and well-known. I don’t have those ties. I am independent of those big banks on Wall Street,” he added.

{mosads}”My proposals reflect that, because I would restore robust prosecution and deterrents, I would reinstate Glass-Steagall to separate the speculative banking from the commercial and depository banking. And I think most American believe that’s common sense,” O’Malley added.

The former governor and his campaign have repeatedly gone after Clinton on other issues, but knocking Clinton by name is evidence the campaign is ratcheting up its rhetoric.

O’Malley currently takes less than 1 percent nationally in the Real Clear Politics polling average, and has sought to cut into the leads of Clinton, the far-away frontrunner, as well as Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.).

Sanders and O’Malley have both vocally targeted Wall Street on the campaign trail, something  supporters have urged Clinton to take a tougher position on.

O’Malley said Monday that Wall Street reform “is one of the very serious disagreements, policy disagreements, in this campaign.”

The Maryland Democrat’s campaign also highlighted his record on climate change Monday, moments after Clinton refused again to weigh in on the controversial Keystone XL oil pipeline.