Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe (D), a friend of Hillary Clinton, on Tuesday suggested that the former secretary of state would change her position on the Trans-Pacific Partnership, prompting the Clinton campaign to quickly push back against McAuliffe’s claim.
“I worry that if we don’t do TPP, at some point China’s going to break the rules — but Hillary understands this,” McAuliffe told Politico. “Once the election’s over, and we sit down on trade, people understand a couple things we want to fix on it but going forward we got to build a global economy.”
And when asked if he believes Clinton will reverse her opposition to the TPP if she is elected president, McAuliffe said, “Yes. Listen, she was in support of it. There were specific things in it she wants fixed.”
A spokesman for the governor later clarified to Politico that while McAuliffe supports the TPP, “he has no expectation Secretary Clinton would change her position on the legislation and she has never told him anything to that effect.”
And John Podesta quickly pushed back against McAuliffe’s comments, noting that Clinton has long opposed the TPP — she came out against the trade deal last year.
Love Gov. McAuliffe, but he got this one flat wrong. Hillary opposes TPP BEFORE and AFTER the election. Period. Full stop.
— John Podesta (@johnpodesta) July 27, 2016
Trade and specifically the TPP became a big issue in the Democratic primary, as Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) came out strongly against the trade deal. Sanders’ supporters place a lot of emphasis on Sanders’ position on trade, and his delegates have made their opposition to the TPP clear at the Democratic convention in Philadelphia.
