Hillary Clinton told an audience of about 150 campaign donors on Tuesday the Baltimore riot was “heartbreaking.”
Clinton, the Democratic Party’s frontrunner for the 2016 presidential nomination, added that once order is restored “we have to take a hard look as to what we need to do to reform our system.”
The comments came at Clinton’s third and final New York City fundraiser of the day.
“It is heartbreaking. The tragic death of another young African-American man. The injuries to police officers. The burning of peoples’ homes and small businesses,” Clinton said. “We have to restore order and security. But then we have to take a hard look as to what we need to do to reform our system.”
Clinton said she will be “speaking about this more tomorrow” when she headlines an event at Columbia University.
Baltimore was consumed by riots on Monday after the funeral for Freddie Gray, a Baltimore man who died while in police custody. The riots led to nearly 200 arrests, 144 vehicle fires and 15 structure fires in Baltimore, according to a city official. The events reignited questions about racial biases in the United States criminal justice system.
Clinton has made similar comments before.
“Those families and those communities and our country deserve … whatever substantive reforms are necessary to ensure equality, justice and respect for every citizen,” Clinton told a Boston audience, after grand juries cleared police officers in the killing of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, and Eric Garner in Staten Island, New York.
Tuesday was the first day of fundraising for Clinton, who launched her presidential campaign earlier this month. The events were part of the campaign’s “Hillstarters” program, which ask donors to raise $27,000 for the campaign in 10 contributions of $2,700. The campaign is currently only collecting money for the primary campaign with a $100 million goal.
Clinton spoke to about 120 people at her first event of event of the day, as hosted at the New York City home of Lisa and Richard Perry, a famed clothing designer and a hedge fund manager, respectively.
Actresses Mary Kate and Ashley Olsen attended the event, according to ABC News.
Clinton’s second event was at the home of Arne and Milly Glimcher. Alan Patricof, a longtime Clinton supporter and venture capitalist, co-hosted the event that put the presidential candidate in front of about 75 people.
“She focused on education, on immigration, on income inequality, on fairness and several other issues,” Patricof told CNN after the event.
Lori Ordover, a real estate developer in New York, said Clinton spent time talking about “really building up the middle class” and “helping families.”
Dennis Cheng, Clinton’s finance director, joined the former secretary of state at all three events.
One thing Clinton didn’t mention at the event, according to attendees, was CEO and Wall Street pay, an issue she focused on while in Iowa earlier this month.
“There’s something wrong when CEOs make 300 times more than the typical worker,” Clinton said in Iowa. “And there’s something wrong when hedge fund managers pay lower tax rates than nurses or the truckers that I saw on I-80 as I was driving here over the last two days.”
Jeffrey Squire, a lawyer who attended the second event, said, “No, she didn’t talk about Wall Street pay, because these were a lot of really rich people there.”
Patricof confirmed that CEO pay didn’t come up, but added, “My experience is that most people on Wall Street are willing to transcend their own personal interests and they don’t vote and don’t support people based on one particular issue.”
“I don’t think she is anti-Wall Street any how,” he said. “I think she is very realistic person who understands the issues and will behave in a rational way.”
At the third event, Clinton said her campaign would focus on “inclusive prosperity,” noting that many Americans are “feeling like the deck is stacked for those like us, let’s be honest — for people who have done well and continue to do well.”
“I want the middle class to mean something again,” Clinton said at the 150-person fundraiser hosted by Doug and Agatha Teitelbaum. “I want to be a president for people who dream again and feel like they can get where their ambition and hard work will take them.”
Clinton will travel to Washington on Thursday for a series of fundraisers and will spend three days raising more cash in California next week.
