[There was a video here]

It is a fact that Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign, like her previous political campaigns, is funded in large part by donations from the finance industry. Bernie Sanders has criticized her for this—or, at least, he has pointed this out, critically. At tonight’s inconveniently scheduled Democratic debate on CBS, Sanders was asked to reiterate that criticism. Clinton’s response was, well, memorable.

A simple answer to this question of why so many of your donors are from the finance industry is, Wall Street gives me money because they think I’m going to win, and they are obviously trying to influence me. Then, to sound good and not bad, you could add: but it won’t work.

A less simple answer is this:

You know, not only do I have hundreds of thousands of donors, most of them small, and i’m very proud the fact that for the first time, a majority of my donors are women, 60 percent. ( cheers and applause ) So I— I represented New York, and I represented New York on 9/11, when we were attacked. Where were we attacked? We were attacked in downtown Manhattan where Wall Street is. I did spend a whole lot of time and effort helping them rebuild. That was good for New York, it was good for the economy, and it was a way to rebuke the terrorists who had attacked our country. So it’s fine for you to say what you’re going to say, but I looked very carefully at your proposal, reinstating Glass-Steagall is a part of what very well could help, but it is nowhere near enough. My proposal is tougher, more effective, and more comprehensive because I go after all of Wall Street not just the big banks.

Yes, sure, Wall Street is indeed in Lower Manhattan, which was also one of the sites of the 9/11 attacks. I’m not sure what was supposed to be the “rebuke to the terrorists”—Clinton spending time in lower Manhattan or Clinton accepting donations from the finance industry?

CBS then outsourced the job of “debate moderator” to Twitter (which could have been worse), reading Clinton a tweet asking what, precisely, 9/11 had to do with campaign finance.

This answer was a bit more coherent, if unlikely to sound convincing to anyone inclined to see the Clintons as longtime agents of the economic ruling elite.

[There was a video here]