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NEW YORK, NY - NOVEMBER 13: Former US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton speaks onstage during The Child Mind Institute Summit: The State of Child & Adolescent Mental Health at The Paley Center for Media on November 13, 2017 in New York City. (Photo by Jamie McCarthy/Getty Images for Child Mind Institute )
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But she’s also not taking a position on the trade promotion authority bill, which is crucial to determining whether the linchpin of Obama’s trade effort – the 12-nation Trans-Pacific Partnership – ever gets done.
The Democratic frontrunner – purposefully or not – conflated the two issues in her most extensive remarks yet on trade during a Sunday rally in Des Moines, Iowa. She also implied she’d drive a harder bargain on both than Obama has.
“No president would be a tougher negotiator on behalf of American workers, either with our trade partners or Republicans on Capitol Hill, than I would be,” Clinton said.
She cited House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi by name twice. However, Clinton didn’t weigh in at all on the bill the California Democrat maneuvered to block last week: so-called “trade promotion authority.”
It’s a measure that guarantees trade deals straight up-or-down votes without amendments – key, negotiators say, to getting foreign leaders to take the political risks of making their best offers and signing off on a final agreement.
That bill – not the Trans-Pacific Partnership itself – is what pitted Pelosi against Obama last week.
And if the party succeeds in killing trade promotion authority, Democrats would close the door on the Pacific deal before it’s even finalized.
The intra-party resistance to Obama’s trade efforts was laid bare on Friday when Pelosi-led congressional Democrats stunned the White House and turned against a bill they typically support, which aids displaced workers, because rejecting that bill had the procedural effect of also thwarting Republicans’ push to grant Obama trade promotion authority.
Clinton said that Democratic opposition should strengthen the Obama administration’s hand in talks with the other countries involved in the Trans-Pacific Partnership, including Japan, Australia, Canada and Mexico.
“There are some specifics in there that could and should be changed. So I am hoping that’s what happens now – let’s take the lemons and turn it into lemonade,” Clinton said.
But unless Congress grants Obama trade promotion authority, even the most optimistic free trade advocates admit, the Trans-Pacific Partnership negotiations have no path forward.
Brendan Buck, spokesman for the GOP-led House Ways and Means Committee, tweeted: “Either Clinton isn’t familiar with the very basics of [trade promotion authority] debate or she is being incredibly disingenuous.”
Clinton aides on Sunday downplayed the importance of trade promotion authority, which could come up for another vote in the House this week.
Chief strategist and pollster Joel Benenson said on ABC’s “This Week” that trade promotion authority is “Washington inside baseball about how we get there.”
Campaign manager Robby Mook told CBS’s “Face the Nation” that debate over the bill is “procedures and parliamentary this and that.”
Clinton’s comments on trade came at her first campaign rally in Iowa after shifting her campaign away from small roundtables and toward bigger events, starting a day earlier in New York City.
Clinton has taken fire from liberal opponents like Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders for her lack of clarity on the issue.
The former first lady said any trade deal should protect U.S. jobs, increase wages and improve the nation’s security.
“In order to get a deal that meets these high standards, the President should listen to and work with his allies in Congress, starting with Nancy Pelosi, who have expressed their concerns about the impact that a weak agreement would have on our workers, to make sure we get the best, strongest deal possible,” she said. “And if we don’t get it, there should be no deal.”
She said that there are “voices, you’ve heard them, that are for the deal no matter what’s in it,” and those whose opposition is unmoving.
“I kind of fall in the group that says let’s find out what’s in it and let’s make it as good as it can be, and then let’s make a decision,” she said.
In the past, Clinton has offered several more specific critiques of the deal.
Photos: Hillary Clinton's life in the spotlight
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Hillary Clinton accepts the Democratic Party's nomination for president at the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia on July 28, 2016. The former first lady, U.S. senator and secretary of state was the first woman to lead the presidential ticket of a major political party.
Photos: Hillary Clinton's life in the spotlight
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Before marrying Bill Clinton, she was Hillary Rodham. Here she attends Wellesley College in Massachusetts. Her commencement speech at Wellesley's graduation ceremony in 1969 attracted national attention. After graduating, she attended Yale Law School.
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Rodham was a lawyer on the House Judiciary Committee, whose work led to impeachment charges against President Richard Nixon in 1974.
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In 1975, Rodham married Bill Clinton, whom she met at Yale Law School. He became the governor of Arkansas in 1978. In 1980, the couple had a daughter, Chelsea.
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Arkansas' first lady, now using the name Hillary Rodham Clinton, wears her inaugural ball gown in 1985.
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The Clintons celebrate Bill's inauguration in Little Rock, Arkansas, in 1991. He was governor from 1983 to 1992, when he was elected President.
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Bill Clinton comforts his wife on the set of "60 Minutes" after a stage light broke loose from the ceiling and knocked her down in January 1992.
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In June 1992, Clinton uses a sewing machine designed to eliminate back and wrist strain. She had just given a speech at a convention of the International Ladies' Garment Workers Union.
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During the 1992 presidential campaign, Clinton jokes with her husband's running mate, Al Gore, and Gore's wife, Tipper, aboard a campaign bus.
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Clinton accompanies her husband as he takes the oath of office in January 1993.
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The Clintons share a laugh on Capitol Hill in 1993.
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Clinton unveils the renovated Blue Room of the White House in 1995.
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Clinton waves to the media in January 1996 as she arrives for an appearance before a grand jury in Washington. The first lady was subpoenaed to testify as a witness in the investigation of the Whitewater land deal in Arkansas. The Clintons' business investment was investigated, but ultimately they were cleared of any wrongdoing.
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The Clintons hug as Bill is sworn in for a second term as President.
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The first lady holds up a Grammy Award, which she won for her audiobook "It Takes a Village" in 1997.
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The Clintons dance on a beach in the U.S. Virgin Islands in January 1998. Later that month, Bill Clinton was accused of having a sexual relationship with former White House intern Monica Lewinsky.
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Clinton looks on as her husband discusses the Monica Lewinsky scandal in the Roosevelt Room of the White House on January 26, 1998. Clinton declared, "I did not have sexual relations with that woman." In August of that year, Clinton testified before a grand jury and admitted to having "inappropriate intimate contact" with Lewinsky, but he said it did not constitute sexual relations because they had not had intercourse. He was impeached in December on charges of perjury and obstruction of justice.
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The first family walks with their dog, Buddy, as they leave the White House for a vacation in August 1998.
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President Clinton makes a statement at the White House in December 1998, thanking members of Congress who voted against his impeachment. The Senate trial ended with an acquittal in February 1999.
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Clinton announces in February 2000 that she will seek the U.S. Senate seat in New York. She was elected later that year.
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Clinton makes her first appearance on the Senate Environment and Natural Resources Committee.
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Sen. Clinton comforts Maren Sarkarat, a woman who lost her husband in the September 11 terrorist attacks, during a ground-zero memorial in October 2001.
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Clinton holds up her book "Living History" before a signing in Auburn Hills, Michigan, in 2003.
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Clinton and another presidential hopeful, U.S. Sen. Barack Obama, applaud at the start of a Democratic debate in 2007.
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Obama and Clinton talk on the plane on their way to a rally in Unity, New Hampshire, in June 2008. She had recently ended her presidential campaign and endorsed Obama.
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Obama is flanked by Clinton and Vice President-elect Joe Biden at a news conference in Chicago in December 2008. He had designated Clinton to be his secretary of state.
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Clinton, as secretary of state, greets Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin during a meeting just outside Moscow in March 2010.
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The Clintons pose on the day of Chelsea's wedding to Marc Mezvinsky in July 2010.
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In this photo provided by the White House, Obama, Clinton, Biden and other members of the national security team receive an update on the mission against Osama bin Laden in May 2011.
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Clinton checks her Blackberry inside a military plane after leaving Malta in October 2011. In 2015, The New York Times reported that Clinton exclusively used a personal email account during her time as secretary of state. The account, fed through its own server, raises security and preservation concerns. Clinton later said she used a private domain out of "convenience," but admits in retrospect "it would have been better" to use multiple emails.
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Clinton arrives for a group photo before a forum with the Gulf Cooperation Council in March 2012. The forum was held in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
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Obama and Clinton bow during the transfer-of-remains ceremony marking the return of four Americans, including U.S. Ambassador Christopher Stevens, who were killed in Benghazi, Libya, in September 2012.
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Clinton ducks after a woman threw a shoe at her while she was delivering remarks at a recycling trade conference in Las Vegas in 2014.
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Clinton, now running for President again, performs with Jimmy Fallon during a "Tonight Show" skit in September 2015.
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Clinton testifies about the Benghazi attack during a House committee meeting in October 2015. "I would imagine I have thought more about what happened than all of you put together," she said during the 11-hour hearing. "I have lost more sleep than all of you put together. I have been wracking my brain about what more could have been done or should have been done." Months earlier, Clinton had acknowledged a "systemic breakdown" as cited by an Accountability Review Board, and she said that her department was taking additional steps to increase security at U.S. diplomatic facilities.
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U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders shares a lighthearted moment with Clinton during a Democratic presidential debate in October 2015. It came after Sanders gave his take on the Clinton email scandal. "The American people are sick and tired of hearing about the damn emails," Sanders said. "Enough of the emails. Let's talk about the real issues facing the United States of America."
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Clinton is reflected in a teleprompter during a campaign rally in Alexandria, Virginia, in October 2015.
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Clinton walks on her stage with her family after winning the New York primary in April.
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After Clinton became the Democratic Party's presumptive nominee, this photo was posted to her official Twitter account. "To every little girl who dreams big: Yes, you can be anything you want -- even president," Clinton said. "Tonight is for you."
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David Paul Morris/Bloomberg via Getty Images
Obama hugs Clinton after he gave a speech at the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia. The president said Clinton was ready to be commander in chief. "For four years, I had a front-row seat to her intelligence, her judgment and her discipline," he said, referring to her stint as his secretary of state.
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Clinton arrives at a 9/11 commemoration ceremony in New York on September 11. Clinton, who was diagnosed with pneumonia two days before, left early after feeling ill. A video appeared to show her stumble as Secret Service agents helped her into a van.
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Clinton addresses a campaign rally in Cleveland on November 6, two days before Election Day. She went on to lose Ohio -- and the election -- to her Republican opponent, Donald Trump.
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After conceding the presidency to Trump in a phone call earlier, Clinton addresses supporters and campaign workers in New York on Wednesday, November 9. Her defeat marked a stunning end to a campaign that appeared poised to make her the first woman elected US president.
She’s said it should include a crackdown on countries that devalue their own currencies to give their exports a price advantage – which the Obama administration says won’t be included in the Trans-Pacific Partnership.
And she has criticized a chapter that allows companies to ask an international arbiter to rule on whether countries’ laws and regulations violate those countries’ obligations under the trade deal.
“I am willing to try now to see whether you can push to get rid of the objectionable parts, to drive a harder bargain on some of the other parts and to provide transparency so the American people can see what would be in a proposed final deal,” Clinton said Sunday.
“If I were in the White House, that’s what I would be doing right now,” she said.