Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH) said on Tuesday that President Obama’s comments about Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s (D-MA) opposition to the Trans-Pacific Partnership deal were “disrespectful” and suggested that the President would not have responded in the same way to a male senator.
Over the past few weeks, Obama and Warren have dueled over the trade deal the U.S. is negotiating with 11 Pacific countries. In an interview that aired on Saturday, Obama said that Warren’s claims that the trade deal could undermine U.S. financial regulations are “absolutely wrong.”
And when asked if the feud was “personal,” Obama said that “Elizabeth is, you know, a politician like everybody else.”
Brown pointed to Obama’s Saturday comments when discussing the feud with reporters on Tuesday.
“I think the president was disrespectful to her by the way he did that. I think that the president has made this more personal than he needed to,” Brown told reporters, according to the Huffington Post. “I think by calling her ‘another politician’ — I’m not going to get into more details — I think referring to her as first-name when he might not have done that for a male senator, perhaps — I’ve said enough.”
Brown also criticized Obama’s statements criticizing other Democratic senators for fighting him on the trade deal.
“When he said that a number of us — not just Senator Warren — don’t know what we’re talking about, we’re fighting the last war, a number of those phrases he used, I assume he wished he hadn’t said them because he shouldn’t have said them,” he said, according to the Huffington Post.
On Tuesday, Senate Democrats blocked a bill that would have granted the President “fast track” authority to pursue the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP). “Fast track” authority would limit Congress to a simple up or down vote on the TPP without amending the deal.
Of course Buzzfeed immediately went and found examples of Obama calling Senator Brown by his first name in public…
So much for the contention that he wouldn’t have done it with a male Senator.
Whatever the merits of the argument over this vote (I personally side more with Warren & Brown on this bit), Sherrod Brown was clearly engaging in some very unhelpful and inappropriate escalation of this war of words. Both “sides” in this need to de-escalate and scale back the personal rhetoric in this fight.
I thought Obama’s response to Warren et.al. was at best ill conceived. I, of course, like it when he’s critical and snarky toward obstructionist and ignorant Republicans, but his attack on Warren, normally an ally, did seem personal and counterproductive. At the least, bad politicking, IMO.
FFS. Disrespectful?
Welcome to politics Sen Brown.
It might get a little muddy there in the pit.
jw1
Stop this petty sniping and focus energy on stopping the TPP.
Haven’t seen this type of post in awhile. Flagged.
As for Sherrod, errr, I mean Sen Brown, that is absolutely ridiculous and I think made the whole situation worse. He wants to add his two cents, why not defend FLOTUS from the real nasty attacks from the right.