Washington — Mick Mulvaney, interim head of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, told banking executives on Tuesday that as a South Carolina congressman he always met with constituents. But he never met with out-of-town lobbyists, he said, unless they gave him campaign money — explaining why the bankers should push their agenda on Capitol Hill.

“We had a hierarchy in my office in Congress,” said Mulvaney, who was a leading conservative in the House until President Donald Trump tapped him to be the White House budget director, a job he still holds. “If you were a lobbyist who never gave us money, I didn’t talk to you. If you were a lobbyist who gave us money, I might talk to you.”

Still, he said, the priority was given to local constituents. “If you came from back home and sat in my lobby, I talked to you without exception, regardless of the financial contributions,” Mulvaney said in his address to the American Bankers Association, according to a transcript provided by the CFPB.

The ABA is one of the largest and most powerful financial industry lobbying groups, representing a wide swath of the banking industry, from JPMorgan Chase to small community banks. At the group’s annual conference in Washington, industry executives often descend on Capitol Hill to talk to lawmakers about their issues.

Lawmakers “will never know as much about your industry as you do. They will never know as much about your issues as you do. And they will not know that it is as important to you as it is until you tell them,” Mulvaney said.

Mulvaney’s comments immediately drew backlash from Democrats after a New York Times report about the speech.

“Nothing says drain the swamp like telling a room full of bankers to give more money to politicians who put the interests of banks ahead of people,” Rep. Adam B. Schiff, D-Calif., said in a Wednesday morning tweet.

Bernie Sanders tweeted: “Mick Mulvaney tells us everything we need to know about how Washington works, and why wealthy special interests make billions in campaign contributions. Government should be about representing ordinary Americans, not just the rich and the powerful.”