Martin O’Malley escalated his attacks on Democratic rival Hillary Clinton this morning, accusing her of “wrapping herself in the tragedy of 9/11” when she defended her ties to Wall Street during Saturday’s presidential debate.

Appearing on CNN, O’Malley was asked about the applause Clinton received after linking Wall Street contributions to her post-9/11 efforts and he said, “She had a lot of friends in the hall, shall we say, and Secretary Clinton has a lot of friends on Wall Street and those friends on Wall Street at the biggest banks have paid her hundreds of thousands of dollars in speaking fees and will be the ones guiding our economic policy should Secretary Clinton be elected president.

“I thought that moment was pretty shameful. I don’t believe the people watching were applauding the notion that Secretary Clinton was pumping out this smoke screen and wrapping herself in the tragedy of 9/11. I don’t think they saw that as something appropriate to do to mask her coziness and her closeness to Wall Street and all of the architects of the crash in 2008,” O’Malley said.

According to the Weekly Standard, during the debate, Clinton responded to a Sanders attack by saying:

He [Sanders] has used his answer to…. basically… impugn my integrity. Let’s be frank here. [Crosstalk]. Wait a minute, Senator. [Crowd hushes.] You know, not only do I have hundreds of thousands of donors, most of them small. And I’m very proud that, for the first time, a majority of my donors are women. 60 percent.

So, 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. It was good for New York, it was good for the economy, and it was a way to rebuke the terrorists who attacked our country. So it’s fine for you to say what you’re gonna say, but I looked very carefully at your proposal, reinstating Glass Steagall, is a part of what very well could help, but is nowhere enough. My proposal is tougher, more effective and more comprehensive, because I go after all of Wall Street, not just the big banks.

When given the chance, Clinton’s former campaign manager, Patty Solis Doyle, couldn’t defend Hillary’s statement.

“… I do think the 9/11 reference was probably better used when she was talking about terrorism. She was senator when the 9/11 attacks happened. She was the senator when we needed to rebuild that city. And it would have been more powerful talking about terrorism,” she said on CNN.