While publicly opposing an international free trade agreement, presidential candidate Hillary Clinton was secretly lobbying Democratic members of Congress to support the deal as her newly released emails disclosed. Due to Clinton’s history of dishonesty and political flip-flopping, Sen. Bernie Sanders believes she will change her stance on the TPP and support the detrimental trade deal if she is elected president.
In a press release from last month, Sanders’ campaign wrote, “On trade, Sanders welcomed Clinton’s new-found resistance to a proposed Pacific Rim trade deal but noted that she was sympathetic to it in the past and favored other bad trade deals like the North American Free Trade Agreement. The trade pacts promoted by multi-national corporations have contributed to the shutdown of 60,000 U.S. factories and resulted in the loss of good-paying jobs in the United States. While Clinton may have shifted stands recently, Sanders noted that Thomas Donahue, the head of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, predicted she would do another about-face and support the business-backed deal if she wins the White House.”
Although Clinton publicly opposed a controversial Colombian trade deal during her 2008 presidential run, the State Department released 881 of her emails on Friday including many that revealed Clinton was personally lobbying in support of the trade agreement. Falsely claiming concern for the history of violence against trade unionists in Colombia, Clinton stated, “I oppose the deal. I have spoken out against the deal, I will vote against the deal, and I will do everything I can to urge the Congress to reject the Colombia Free Trade Agreement.”