Podesta: Hillary’s TPP Position Has To Be In ‘Context’ of Republicans Opposing Min Wage Increase

Hillary for America Chairman John Podesta stated that Hillary’s position on the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) has to be put “in the whole context of the Republicans blocking raising the minimum wise, blocking the job training, blocking the right investments for the country” on Tuesday’s broadcast of CNN’s “Wolf.”

Podesta in response to a question on Hillary’s position on TPP, said, “Well, look, I think what she said at the time was she had hope that this would be the highest standard trade deal in the world. She set a very high bar, which is that had to raise wages, create good jobs, protect the national security, the treaty was only negotiated last week, and when she looked at the final agreement, I think she concluded that it didn’t meet that high bar that she had set, that particularly, as she has noted, the fact that currency manipulation was not in the core of the agreement. It’s led to the loss of thousands of jobs, means that she did exactly what she should do. What a leader should do is to look at the substance at the end, not prejudge it, and make a decision. And she said that her number one issue in the campaign is raising people’s wages, and I think at the end of day, she didn’t feel like the agreement, in its final form, that she could tell the American people that it would actually accomplish that.”

Podesta was then asked if Hillary believes the president “made a major blunder” by supporting the deal. He responded, that Hillary believes Obama “negotiated hard, but [at] the end of the day, given where we are, given the fact that wages haven’t grown in this country, you have to put that in the whole context of the Republicans blocking raising the minimum wise, blocking the job training, blocking the right investments for the country, looking — in its totality, notwithstanding the fact that the president and his team negotiated hard, that it just didn’t meet the bar that she could tell the American people that, I’m confident that if we pass this, it’ll raise your wages.”

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