“Part of what was deleted from the original version read, “[We encourage] all open-market democracies driving toward a more prosperous future to join negotiations with Asian nations on TPP, the trans-Pacific trade agreement”.
Advertisement
But while serving as Obama’s secretary of state, Clinton praised TPP as a deal that “sets the gold standard in trade agreements”.
Expect more back and forth over this issue in the general election as the Trump campaign seizes on the trade deal as an example of what they see as Clinton’s political posturing and an area in which they can possibly draw disaffected Sanders supporters.
President Obama is supportive of the agreement.
Mr. Todd agrees – and noted most media covering the Clinton campaign agree – that Mrs. Clinton will defy her campaign pledge and ultimately vote for the deal. But let’s break down what’s happened over the past 24 hours.
Gov. Terry McAuliffe fueled new distrust of Hillary Clinton among liberal Democrats this week with a declaration that the presidential nominee was likely to reverse her position on the Trans-Pacific Partnership after the election.
Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton points at President Barack Obama as she arrives onstage at the end of his speech on the third night of the 2016 Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania U.S., July 27, 2016. Late last month, Trump escalated the rhetoric against the TPP, proclaiming it a “rape of our country” and challenging Hillary Clinton to void the agreement in its entirety.
Later, McAuliffe’s spokesman sought to clarify the governor’s remarks after this story published, saying he was simply expressing what he wants Clinton to do if she is elected president.
Who needs enemies when one has friends like Terry McAuliffe? Of TPP, Clinton wrote in her book Hard Choices that, “its higher standards, if implemented and enforced, should benefit American businesses and workers”.
By Wednesday morning, McAuliffe was characterizing the exchange as a misunderstanding between the governor and a reporter.
“TPP is going to be great for the American economy, for American workers and American companies”, Kritenbrink said, noting Singapore, a signatory to the deal, strongly supports it.
Beyond the economic case for the TPP, there’s the political one: the TPP would strengthen ties among Asian Pacific nations.
“I like trade where the United States makes a lot of money”, he said.
Instead, Mr. Sanders’ supporters are being told by the mainstream media that Mrs. Clinton can be trusted to live up to the progressive platform they helped build – that they’ve essentially won the war.
Advertisement
At the Democratic National Convention this week, where Clinton will formally accept her party’s presidential nomination, opposition to trade deals was plastered on buttons, scrawled on signs and chanted by delegates.
