Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe (D.) appeared to double down Wednesday on earlier comments he made that Hillary Clinton would change her position and support the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade agreement if she becomes president.
"To be very clear, she would only go forward if the changes that she wants are implemented, that everybody’s in agreement, the labor folks would be in agreement," McAuliffe said in remarks aired on MSNBC. "She’s not going forward as it is today, so unless the changes are made, she’s doesn’t support it. President Obama does want this, as you know."
McAuliffe caused a dust-up on Tuesday when he made a similar assertion about TPP to Politico, which was met with swift blowback from the Clinton team.
"I worry that if we don’t do TPP, at some point China’s going to break the rules—but Hillary understands this," McAuliffe said. "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."
Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta tweeted that McAuliffe was wrong and Clinton was against the TPP before and after the election, "Period. Full stop."
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
The TPP trade agreement, which Clinton pushed as secretary of state before flip-flopping as a presidential candidate, is backed by President Obama, but it is heavily opposed by the left wing of the Democratic Party. Supporters of Bernie Sanders (I., Vt.) have waved signs showing their opposition throughout the Democratic National Convention and chanted against it as well. They were angry that language against it did not get into the Democratic Party platform in 2016.