O’Malley: Wall St. fine with Clinton or Bush

Martin O’Malley sharpened his attack against Hillary Clinton on Monday, arguing that neither she nor Jeb Bush would hold Wall Street accountable.

“I believe that the presidency is a sacred trust, and I believe that we are best served by giving the choice of who our president should be to the people of the United States and not to the big banks on Wall Street,” O’Malley, the former governor of Maryland, said in an interview on ABC’s “Good Morning America.”

“I believe that, when the CEO of Goldman Sachs says he’d be just fine with either Bush or Clinton, that should be a wake-up call for all of us because we have not delivered on the promise of reigning in excesses of Wall Street and our entire economy is still vulnerable to that,” added O’Malley, who, on Saturday, joined the race for the Democratic presidential nomination.

O’Malley is seeking to challenge Clinton for the left after endorsing her 2008 presidential bid. Bush, the former Florida governor, is running for the GOP nomination.

The Maryland Democrat made it clear he’ll make Wall Street reform a major issue in his campaign and will look to contrast his views with Clinton’s record.

O’Malley’s challenge in getting traction as a liberal antagonist to Clinton might be Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.). Sanders launched his bid weeks ago and has gained attention on the campaign trail.

The former Maryland governor has also received a share of support from the financial services industry.

Throughout his gubernatorial elections, he received about $469,000 from donors involved in “securities and investment.” That’s a small fraction of the almost $23 million that he raised during those races, but it makes up the third highest group of employees who donated to O’Malley, according to the National Institute on State and Local Politics.