Clinton Capitalizes on Anti-Wall Street Fervor in First Rally with Warren

Hillary Clinton and Elizabeth Warren made their first joint appearance on the campaign trail on Monday. (Photo: Getty)

Clinton Capitalizes on Anti-Wall Street Fervor in First Rally with Warren

But Clinton is not the only one who's trying to exploit Sanders' impact on the election—Republicans are, too

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) joined Hillary Clinton for their first joint campaign appearance on Monday to introduce an economic plan that the presumptive Democratic nominee hopes will rally the populist spirit stirred by rival Bernie Sanders.

Despite Clinton's well-known ties to the financial industry, she capitalized on anti-Wall Street fever Monday by telling rally-goers in Ohio, "I got into this race because I wanted to even the odds for people who have the odds stacked against them. To build an economy that works for everyone, not just those at the top, we have got to go big and we have got to go bold."

The event marked the first time Clinton and Warren have campaigned together as speculation builds that Clinton is vetting the Massachusetts senator for vice president. Like Sanders, Warren has built much of her career as a champion against income inequality and "too big to fail" banks.

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Political commentator and former secretary of labor Robert Reich tweeted on Monday, "This morning in Ohio, Hillary sounded more like Bernie than she's ever sounded."

But Clinton is not the only one seeking to exploit that progressive energy--Republicans are, too. According to a GOP strategy memo (pdf) obtained by the Huffington Post on Sunday, the Republican National Committee (RNC) is planning on wooing Sanders supporters to its platform through a variety of means, including by targeting Clinton's running mate.

The goals of the strategy, titled Project Pander, are to "drive wedges between these top contenders and either Clinton and/or traditional Democrat constituencies, such as labor, environmentalists, and gun control advocates, and other traditional left-wing constituencies;" and "[w]here applicable, frame the [vice presidential] choice as an insult to the large, deep base of Bernie Sanders supporters who are struggling with the notion of supporting Hillary Clinton as the presumptive Democrat nominee," the HuffPostreported.

The strategists recognized that Warren would be a welcome pick for Sanders supporters. To that end, they said, the RNC could respond by "highlighting the policy differences between the two, particularly Clinton's ties to the financial industry and on Syria... to sow unease from the left if Warren mollifies some of her views."

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