Bill Clinton jabbed Bernie Sanders and students who support the Vermont senator's attacks on corrupt financial systems. | Getty Bill Clinton: Sanders backers would 'shoot every third person on Wall Street'

If Bernie Sanders were elected president, his supporters would “shoot every third person on Wall Street,” former President Bill Clinton joked on Friday.

Stumping for his wife Hillary Clinton at an event in Fort Washington, New York, Clinton jabbed Sanders and students who support the Vermont senator's attacks on corrupt financial systems.


"One of the few things I really haven't enjoyed about this primary: I think it's fine that all these young students have been so enthusiastic for her opponent and [he] sounds so good: 'Just shoot every third person on Wall Street and everything will be fine,'" he said.

The former president also defended his wife’s record of supporting financial reforms like the Dodd-Frank Act, which he said helped reduce the number of people working on Wall Street.

"The inequality problem is rooted in the shareholder-first mentality and the absence of training for the jobs of tomorrow," he said.

In an interview with NBC News following the event, Clinton insisted his comment was "a total joke.”

But Sanders didn't appear to take it that way, firing back on Twitter: "We should be encouraging young people to get involved in politics, not disparaging them. This seems to be a pattern."

Nor is it the first time Clinton has made violence-tinged barbs about left-wing critics of the financial industry.

"You could take [Goldman Sachs CEO] Lloyd Blankfein into a dark alley," Clinton once said, according to former Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner. "And slit his throat, and it would satisfy them for about two days. Then the blood lust would rise again."