Hillary Clinton and her campaign have been mopping up the mess she made surrounding her ties to Wall Street since Saturday night’s Democratic primary debate, when she defended her connections to the financial industry by invoking the September 11 terrorist attacks.

Her comment came in response to Bernie Sanders’s criticism of the millions of dollars she’s accepted from banks and bankers and the influence these contributions could have over her.

“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,” she said. “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.”

The remark drew immediate reactions, ranging from confusion over the connection Clinton was trying to make and shock at the gall of using the attacks to save her from a tough critique. CBS moderators wasted no time bringing up the outrage, reading a tweet from a viewer mid-debate questioning whether mentioning the attacks was appropriate when talking about campaign finance.

“I am sorry if whoever tweeted that had that impression,” Clinton said at the time.

The following day, Clinton’s team swept in to re-characterize her comment. At the Central Iowa Democrats fall barbecue, Clinton’s campaign chairman, John Podesta, touted the candidate’s history of coming down on the financial industry, according to Yahoo News.

“I think she’s got a strong record on Wall Street reform. She’s put forward the strongest policies on Wall Street reform,” he said (while sporting an Equilibrium Capital–branded fleece). He added that Clinton's 9/11 comments were an unplanned reaction to the attacks leveed against her.

“I think that she was feeling that unfair charges were made and she pushed back,” he said.

Another campaign spokeswoman, Jennifer Palmieri, came to the defense of the comments and Clinton’s record on Wall Street, telling Bloomberg, “There are times when she’s worked very productively with Wall Street, and 9/11 is an example of that. There were also times when she thought they were going too far or pursuing reckless behavior, and she didn’t hesitate to speak out.”

And then came the big guns: former president Bill Clinton worked the rope line at the barbecue, trying to stomp out the fire around her relationship with the Street.

“It is a stretch. Those of us who were there know that,” the former president said, according to Bloomberg.

The explanation offensive wasn’t enough to quiet Hillary opponents, as both Sanders and Martin O’Malley continued to jump up and down and all over her remarks.

“I thought last night was a pretty disgraceful moment, when she tried to put out a smoke screen, invoking 9/11 to hide the fact that she’s taken millions in contributions from the big banks on Wall Street, not to mention all the hundreds of thousands in speaking fees,” O’Malley told Bloomberg at the barbecue.

Sanders piled on at the event, too: “I have no idea what the connection is between Secretary Clinton’s efforts and all of our efforts to help rebuild New York City after that disaster, with the fact that Wall Street contributors over her lifetime have been the major source of her funding,” he said, hammering home the fact that these two will likely dine out on this for the foreseeable future.