Obama shrugs off Hillary’s opposition to Pacific trade deal
Back in May, President Obama savaged Sen. Elizabeth Warren for her opposition to his signature trade agreement, the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP).
In an interview with Yahoo News, Obama denounced the Massachusetts Democrat and liberal champion as “absolutely wrong” on TPP, and brushed off what he dismissed as her “hypothetical, speculative” arguments.
“The truth of the matter is that Elizabeth is, you know, a politician like everybody else,” Obama said. “And you know, she’s got a voice that she wants to get out there. And I understand that. And on most issues, she and I deeply agree. On this one, though, her arguments don’t stand the test of fact and scrutiny.”
Five months later, the president faces new opposition to the trade deal from Hillary Clinton, who not only served as his secretary of state but played a large role in advancing the agreement. In 2012, while it was still being negotiated, the future 2016 presidential candidate famously called it “the gold standard.”
But at this week’s Democratic debate, she repudiated it.
“It was just finally negotiated last week, and in looking at it, it didn’t meet my standards. My standards for more new, good jobs for Americans, for raising wages for Americans,” she said. “And I want to make sure that I can look into the eyes of any middle-class American and say, ‘this will help raise your wages.’ And I concluded I could not.”
Is Hillary also “absolutely wrong”? Is she “a politician just like everybody else”? At a joint press availability with South Korean Park Geun-hye on Friday, President Obama got a chance to take on Clinton directly.
Instead, he punted.
“With respect to the trade and how Hillary views trade, I would have you direct questions to her,” he said in response to a reporter who asked if he was “disappointed” by her opposition to the deal. “I mean, here is a general proposition, guys. During the course of what will be a long campaign, I probably won’t be commenting on every single utterance or decision that the various candidates make, because I think that it is natural and proper for candidates to run on their own vision and their own platform.”
Obama did not say how he expected Hillary to know whether he is upset that she opposes TPP, or why he thought she might be more willing than he was to comment on their differences.
Also remarkable was his effort to lump her opposition to what he hopes to cement as one of his biggest second-term achievements with every other forgettable campaign-season utterance.
Obama aides say that they don’t think Clinton’s opposition to the trade deal will make it significantly harder to get the pact through Congress, where they expect lawmakers to focus on the agreement’s impact on home-state economic effects.
The president himself noted that the terms of the deal aren’t public yet.
“I’m sure that we’ll continue this debate as we post the actual terms of the agreement and Congress has a chance to review it,” he said. “I’m pretty confident I’ll be able to persuade a lot of people, once they see the outlines of the deal, that it’s the right thing to do.”
