DES
MOINES, Iowa — Hillary Rodham Clinton is distancing herself from
President Barack Obama over a contentious trade proposal, encouraging
the president to address concerns raised by congressional Democrats and
negotiate a better deal with 11 Pacific Rim nations.
The
Democratic presidential front-runner on Sunday told Iowa Democrats that
Obama should seek more concessions as a way to improve the Trans
Pacific Partnership and suggested she'd drive a harder bargain than
Obama.
"No
president would be a tougher negotiator on behalf of American workers,
either with our trade partners or Republicans on Capitol Hill, than I
would be," Clinton said. But Clinton, who is campaigning Monday in New
Hampshire, declined to take a firm stance on the trade deal that has
split Obama from House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi and rank-and-filed
Democrats.
That wasn't acceptable to one of her chief Democratic rivals for the 2016 race, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders.
"Is she for it? Is she against it?" Sanders told reporters in Indianola, Iowa. "Those are your two options."
The
White House and Republican leaders in Congress are facing long odds in
reviving the legislation after congressional Democrats helped defeat a
job retraining program last week in a blow to Obama's attempt to secure
so-called fast track authority. Without the authority to negotiate trade
deals that Congress can approve or reject, but not amend, the president
would face difficulty in securing the Asia trade deal after years of
work.
Congressional
Republicans have suggested they may try to revive the bill as early as
this week. Pelosi decided to side with House Democrats and oppose
Obama's plan, saying it required "a better deal for America's workers."
In
Iowa, Clinton appeared to seek middle ground, saying while some support
the deal and others vehemently oppose it, "I kind of fall in the group
that says 'what's in it?' And 'let's make it as good as it can be, and
then let's make a decision.'"
But that is unlikely to satisfy liberals and labor unions in the party who have organized against the trade pact.
Sanders
has made his opposition to the TPP one of the centerpieces of his
uphill campaign. Addressing Democratic activists in a park pavilion, the
so-called "democratic socialist" railed against what he called a
"disastrous" trade deal and said he would do everything he could to
scuttle it.
"I
kind of think people would prefer to hear what your position is — are
you for it or against it?" Sanders said, asked later by reporters about
Clinton's trade comments. "Rather than passing the buck and saying well,
in a sense, I don't have a position. That is not leadership."
Former
Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley has also opposed the deal and likened it
to the North American Free Trade Agreement signed into law by President
Bill Clinton in 1993.
Democratic
leaders, O'Malley said, should "step up and urge Congress not to fast
track this bad trade deal. We've seen this movie before with NAFTA — a
bad trade deal that devastated communities across the country and cost a
million American jobs." His statement made no mention of Clinton.
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