A top official working for Hillary Clinton's 2016 presidential campaign recently defended the highly criticized remark she made about the donations she received from Wall Street during the second Democratic primary debate Saturday night.

Both Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont and former Gov. Martin O'Malley of Maryland seized the opportunity to attack the Democratic front-runner over her longtime ties when the issue of Wall Street reform was raised during the debate.

"I have never heard a candidate, never, who has received huge amounts of money from oil, from coal, from Wall Street, from the military-industrial complex, not one candidate say, oh, these campaign contributions will not influence me," Sanders said, according to The New York Times. "I'm going to be independent. Well, why do they make millions of dollars of campaign contributions? They expect to get something. Everybody knows that."

In response, Clinton shot back, saying, "Wait a minute, he has basically used his answer to impugn my integrity. Let's be frank here."

"No, I have not," Sanders replied.

"Oh, wait a minute, senator. 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," said the former New York senator, adding that she spent a lot of time on Wall Street after the 9/11 terrorist attack.

"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. 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," she said.

Following her response, many people criticized the former sectary of state for associating 9/11 with her campaign donations from big banks.

On Sunday, Jennifer Palmieri, the director of communications for Clinton's presidential campaign, chimed in on the former first lady's controversial comments and the backlash she has received.

"They were attacking her for being too close to Wall Street," Palmieri said about remarks made by Sanders and O'Malley, according to Reuters. "The point she was making, is that as a senator, she did things for Wall Street, particularly after 9/11, but she also spoke out as a senator and now when she thought they were going too far."

"I don't think that this is something that caucus-goers in Iowa or voters are going to focus on. It's pretty clear where she stands on issues, and donations don't play a role in how she's going to come down on that issue," Palmieri added.

Former President Bill Clinton also called accusations that Hillary Clinton is in bed with Wall Street executives "a stretch."

"Those of us who were there know that," he said, according to CBS News.

Watch Hillary Clinton's exchange with Sanders about working with Wall Street below.