Bernie Sanders has based his campaign on the idea that rich people don't deserve what they have, that Wall Street is evil, and that the "system" is rigged against ordinary people.

Bill Clinton, reflecting on the anger and hate directed at the most successful Americans that Sanders engenders among his supporters, took Sanders rhetoric to its logical conclusion.

The Hill:

"One of the few things I really haven’t enjoyed about this primary: I think it’s fine that all these young students have been so enthusiastic about [Hillary Clinton's] opponent and [Sanders] sounds so good: 'Just shoot every third person on Wall Street and everything will be fine,’” Clinton said in Fort Washington, N.Y., according to CNN

“The inequality problem is rooted in the shareholder-first mentality and the absence of training for the jobs of tomorrow,” Clinton added.

Clinton said after the event on Friday said that the quip illustrates Sanders’s focus on blaming the financial industry for America’s woes.

“It’s a joke,” he told MSNCB. "It’s a total joke. It’s meant to point out that’s the unilateral explanation for everything that’s wrong with America. You know, we all need to lighten up here, have a little sense of humor.”

Sanders has made criticizing Wall Street greed, income inequality and wealthy special interests cornerstones of his White House run.

His campaign on Friday released an ad needling Hillary Clinton for giving paid speeches to major financial institutions.

The Vermont lawmaker on Thursday also mocked Clinton’s ties with Wall Street, arguing it made her soft on big banks.

“Secretary Clinton called them out,” Sanders said of Wall Street during the Democratic presidential debate in Brooklyn. "Oh my gosh, they must have been really crushed by this. Was that before or after you received huge sums of money by giving speaking engagements?"

It's ridiculously easy to demonize Wall Street, and Sanders has made an art of it. He wants to "break up" the big banks, raise taxes on the wealthy, and routinely condemns "greed" as if he is a preacher sermonizing from the pulpit rather than a presidential candidate.

And for a rather large segment of the Democratic base, it works. Sanders isn't the first politicians to play the politics of envy - to make a campaign out of class differences. But it is his barely hidden suggestion that the reason everyone isn't as rich as people on Wall Street is that the wealthy are keeping everyone else down and that they've taken what is rightfully yours.

So Clinton's joke is an exaggerated but logical conclusion to the emnity and fear generated by Sanders' rhetoric. And it highlights Sanders' desire to make the rich the "enemy" that deserves punishment.