Hillary Clinton's statements at Thursday night's Democratic debate calling for a "close watch" to be kept on the nation's big banks was "very funny," GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump said Friday, as he sees hypocrisy from her and others when it comes to taking money from them.
"The hypocrisy on so many counts, whether it's her or others, they're all taking money from big banks, but I'm not sure," Trump told
Fox News' "Fox & Friends" program.
"I self-fund, so I'll do the right thing. But these people all take money from big banks in one form or another."
And as far as Clinton is concerned, "you see her in New York having dinner with the bankers all the time," said Trump. "I mean, it's ridiculous, but she's got to one way or the other. I guess she's got to show she's like Bernie [Sanders]. She has gone a little bit left and she keeps going further and further left."
Trump said as a businessman, "I deal with Wall Street and I can tell you that Wall Street and the banks are controlled by the regulators 100 percent . . . they don't have the power. The regulators have the power. They don't have the power to loan money.
"I mean, it must be a lousy job to be honest with you. But everything they do, they have to go back to government and have it checked off."
Trump also spoke about the upcoming New Hampshire primaries, telling the show that he's leading in the polls, even though "we'll find out soon enough" if the actual numbers will follow through.
Trump denied, though, reports that he was urged to have more people on the ground in Iowa, but refused there and in New Hampshire because he didn't want to spend the money.
"No, no, that's not the truth," he said. "Most of these people are free. They're volunteers. No, we paid top dollar, frankly, in Iowa. And I had a lot of people, but you saw what went on. A lot of things went on. I came in second.
"By the way, I got more votes in Iowa than anybody in the history of the Republican caucus, except for the one."
Also, Trump said he has heard that rival GOP presidential candidates
Chris Christie and Jeb Bush are combining forces to fight against Marco Rubio, but that's not something he would join in doing.
"I think they probably are conspiring," he said. "I mean, I've watched Chris go after [Rubio]. He goes after him very strongly. We'll see what happens. It will be interesting. Me, I work myself. I don't worry about other people."