Clinton also at times used language that seemingly could have been lifted from the stump speeches of her chief Democratic competitor, Bernie Sanders, representing a cementing of her move leftward in order to stave off Sanders’ surging popularity and emergence as her leading rival in the primary.

“You know the deck is rigged,” Clinton said of the tax system. “Well, we’ve got to reshuffle that deck, and make sure we are raising incomes for the middle class,” Clinton said, adding, but “not raising taxes for the middle class,” in a dig at Sanders who has proposed some middle class tax hikes to pay for his program.

“I will not do that,” Clinton said. “From my perspective, we have to create more good-paying jobs, and there’s a bunch of things we could do, if the Republicans would just get out of the way.”