Clinton: GOP attack ads show Wall Street is ‘afraid of me’

Hillary Clinton on Wednesday portrayed new attacks from Republican super-PACs show fear about her plans to take on Wall Street. 

“I’ll give you the best evidence as to why my plan to go after Wall Street is the toughest plan — it’s because the Republicans are advertising against me,” the Democratic presidential front-runner said during a speech at a bowling alley in Iowa just days before the state’s caucuses.

{mosads}“These are guys who try to make smart investments — it started with two hedge-fund billionaires, formed their own super-PAC, started attacking me. Karl Rove followed up, took money from the financial industry, started an ad to attack me.”

“I find this perversely flattering, but I also find it very instructive because if they weren’t afraid of me, they would be just sitting back hoping I’d be nominated,” Clinton said.

Clinton is jockeying for supremacy in the Hawkeye State ahead of Monday’s caucuses. Her chief rival, Bernie Sanders, has repeatedly questioned her ties to Wall Street while running on a populist platform.

The group of hedge fund billionaires that Clinton referred to is Future45, backed by GOP mega-donors Paul Singer and the Ricketts family. It has already released advertisements bashing Clinton. Rove’s group, American Crossroads, is advertising against Clinton in Iowa.

Clinton also mentioned a new advertisement by a new group, Ending Spending, that she said is trying to “muddy the waters to confuse Democrats about who has the toughest, most comprehensive plan.”

The group’s new ad attacks Sanders as too liberal for Iowa, but Clinton allies believe that’s a coded message meant to boost the Vermont senator among progressives and damage Clinton’s chances.

Clinton said the groups attacking her are trying to protect Wall Street from tougher government oversight.

”They know I say what I mean, I mean to do what I say, and I will never let them do to us what they did to us before,” she said, in an apparent nod to the 2008 financial crisis. 

“They are trying to stop me before I get too far. Well, a lot of folks have tried to take me out before and I am still standing. I am going to go right at them and make sure they cannot hurt us anymore.”