Salazar, who also served as secretary of the Interior Department under President Obama, has expressed support for the trade deal with 11 countries spanning the Pacific Rim.

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Neil Sroka, the communications director of Democracy for America, said that while Clinton’s choice of Salazar didn’t negate her stance against the TPP, the move wasn’t helpful less than a week after she firmed up her opposition to a lame-duck congressional vote on the deal.

“It’s not helping the concerns she’s trying to allay,” Sroka said.

Democracy for America and other groups opposed to President Obama’s trade deal want Clinton to come out as forcefully as possible against a lame-duck vote.

She needs to say that “this vote doesn’t need to happen, shouldn’t happen and she will play a role in opposing it if it does,” Sroka said.

Liberal groups praised Clinton’s speech last week as her strongest statement yet against the TPP.

”I will stop any trade deal that kills jobs or holds down wages — including the Trans-Pacific Partnership," Clinton said in last week’s address. “I oppose it now, I'll oppose it after the election and I'll oppose it as president.”

Democracy for America and CREDO have backed a petition that called on Clinton to publicly oppose a lame-duck vote on the TPP.

Adam Green, co-founder of the Progressive Change Campaign Committee, says Clinton should publicly call on Obama to back away from the TPP.

“Now more than ever, Hillary Clinton should press the White House to take the TPP definitively off the table in the lame duck Congress,” Green said.

Obama this month said he was still determined to win a vote on the trade agreement, which is both important to his economic agenda and to his foreign policy push for the U.S. pivot toward Asia.