Watch Hillary endorse the Trans-Pacific Partnership 24 times before coming out

It was Hillary Rodham Clinton, as secretary of State, who laid out the administration’s “pivot to Asia” strategy to expand trade with Pacific Rim nations in a cover essay in Foreign Policy magazine in October 2011. If Biden entered the race, he would have to support the administration’s policies.

While a few pundits have painted Clinton’s transition as political – an appeal to liberals who oppose the deal – she might have legitimately changed her mind. “I don’t believe it’s going to meet the high bar I have set”, she declared.

Then she stepped from the White House and into 2016 presidential politics and struck a more reserved and slightly skeptical tone, withholding a clear opinion on the deal. “Modern trade agreements like the TPP will continue that trend, while also setting high standards for labor, human rights and sustainability”. But she really must think voters are dunces.

Not too long ago, she praised the 12-nation pact to sell a lot more U.S.-made goods overseas as the “gold standard” of trade agreements. In addition, Clinton wants to reduce “dangerous risks in the financial system” and ensure that it will serve the best interests of investors and consumers, “so that everyday Americans can save and invest with confidence that they’re getting a fair shake”.

Moderate Democrats, however, worry that the grass-roots energy supporting Sanders’ liberal agenda could force Clinton – and the party’s brand – too far to the left to be competitive in a general election.

Bowing to populist winds, Hillary Clinton came out against the Trans-Pacific Partnership, following her rejection of the Keystone XL pipeline.

Fan Jishe, a researcher at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences who specializes in USA affairs, said it is highly unlikely that the TPP would lead to the creation of a trade bloc that excludes China.

Clinton says that any new trade deal must “create good American jobs, raise wages, and advance our national security” – and this one doesn’t.

Later, in a statement, she added, “I appreciate the hard work that President Obama and his team put into this process and recognise the strides they made”. “There is a vigorous disagreement inside the Democratic Party about the wisdom of the approach that the president makes”.

From her adventures in cattle trading to chairing a policymaking committee in her husband’s White House to running for Senate in a state she’d never lived in to her effort to use superdelegates to overturn 2008 primary results to her email servers, [Hillary] Clinton is clearly more comfortable than the average person with violating norms and operating in legal gray areas.

One former Bush-era trade official, Timothy Keeler, predicted this week that the agreement might pass Congress next November or December during the so-called lame-duck session.

Clinton’s criticism is in contrast to what she said in a 2014 CNN interview where she defended Obama on this same issue.

If the deal is to be enforced, it has to provide visible benefits to the economy.

Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton unveiled her plan to combat the “abuses of Wall Street” in a statement released on Thursday.