While the Democratic party has been preaching unity during the Democratic National Convention, there seems to be a few cracks here and there. The giant mess left by 20,000 leaked emails is catching headlines, but a longtime friend of both Hillary and Bill Clinton has revealed another potential blip. Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe dropped this tidbit, but may regret the results.
In an interview with Politico, McAuliffe claimed that Hillary will support a trade deal that might earn the ire of Bernie Sanders supporters. Clinton has shown the past few weeks that she is open to change by openly endorsing some of her former rival Bernie Sanders’ platforms. But some voters are not convinced she is going to back all of the Bern’s ideologies. McAuliffe revealed how Clinton may support the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade deal, but he quickly walked back from his statements:
“I worry that if we don’t do TPP, at some point China’s going to break the rules — but Hillary understands this. 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.”
When the publication asked McAuliffe if Clinton would approve this trade deal that she opposed during the primaries, McAuliffe said she would, but with some slight tweaks. However, a McAuliffe spokesperson was quick to retract those statements and reframe by calling the governor’s comments mere hopes for Clinton’s actions (and not necessarily what she will do).
Mother Jones now reports how the Democratic nominee’s camp has pushed back with a statement from campaign chairman John Podesta: “I can be definitive. She is against it before the election and after the election.” For what it’s worth, Clinton vice presidential candidate Tim Kaine voted in favor of “fast-track authority” within the TPP deal.
(Via Politico & The New York Times)