Clinton: Cooperation, not speeches, is needed to regulate Wall Street [View all]

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The Hill: Clinton: Cooperation, not speeches, is needed to regulate Wall Street

Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Democratic presidential candidate Clinton defended her decision to not be a "stem winder" in calling to break up big banks, a clear reference to her 2016 challenger Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.).

"I may not always be the stem winder about these things, because I think it's important and I've been around Washington long enough to know that you have to get people to agree if you want to get something done," Clinton told Dunham.

Progressives have long raised concerns about Clinton's ties to Wall Street, and Sanders, a self-described socialist, has surged in recent weeks in part because of his rousing anti-big-business speeches.

"You know, some people say, 'All we have to do it break up the banks,'" Clinton continued.

"The problem with that is that the banks did their fair share of trouble, but a lot of problems were not from these traditional banks, they were from what’s called the shadow-banking world like Lehman Brothers, which went belly up and brought a lot of people down with them; or AIG, a gigantic insurance company."

"I feel strongly that the Dodd-Frank legislation that was passed after President Obama took office is a good down payment, but it's not good enough," Clinton said.

"We are now fighting just to get it implemented. … What has not been implemented, I will absolutely implement it, and then I will look for any other abuses that needs to be stopped and curved."

Mrs. Clinton has not come out in favor of restoring the Glass-Steagall Act. Mrs. Clinton has historically received large contributions from the banking sector.