Moments before Jeb Bush formally declared his candidacy for president in Miami, Hillary Clinton stole away some of the spotlight with the first official press conference of her campaign – in which she refused once again to take an explicit position on Barack Obama’s historic trade deal with Asia.

The Democrat frontrunner for president addressed reporters on a rainy Monday afternoon following a rally with supporters at a barn tucked away in an orchard in New Hampshire, ending a monthlong media drought. Despite being asked point-blank if she supports giving Obama so-called fast-track authority to negotiate the landmark 12-nation Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), Clinton declined to weigh in on what she called “a process issue”.

The question, Clinton said, was not whether she was for or against the deal – no matter what ends up in it – but whether “its broad outlines can be improved or not to meet the legitimate questions and objections that members of Congress have raised”.

“I have said from the beginning, the [trade promotion authority] is a process issue,” Clinton said of Obama’s fast-track negotiating authority, which would bar Congress from amending any trade deal negotiated by the White House. “The issue for me is what’s in the deal. I think now there’s an opportunity for the president and his team to reach out and meet with the people who have said ... that we need a better deal. I will wait and see what the deal is and then I will tell you what I think about it.”

Pressed again on whether Congress should have fast-track authority to negotiate trade pacts – and if she would want such authority if elected president – Clinton again said the matter was for Obama to resolve with the Democrats who are opposed to his trade agenda and voted against him in a stinging rebuke on Friday.

“I believe that you take whatever happens to you in a negotiation, and you leverage it,” she said. “In this case, I believe that one of the ways the president can get fast-track authority is to deal with the legitimate concerns of those Democrats who are potential ‘yes’ votes to see if what’s in the existing framework agreement ... could be modified or changed.”

Clinton added that Obama has negotiated “very hard” and acknowledged the process was “complicated”.

Democrats in the US House of Representatives derailed the passage of the trade package last week by voting down a provision to aid American workers displaced by trade deal (known as trade adjustment assistance), despite supporting it on principle. The goal was to slow down the broader legislative package, which includes the fast-track negotiating authority for which Obama has been calling for nearly two years.

The House is expected to hold a do-over vote on Tuesday, with Republicans serving as Obama’s rare allies due to their shared support for US trade pacts.

Democrats oppose the emerging trade agreement for a number of reasons, including the potential impact on US manufacturing jobs and the poor labor standards that have in the past been associated with similar deals.

The issue has been particularly thorny for Clinton, whom progressives continue to view with some skepticism. Many regard Nafta – the name for the North American Free Trade Agreement negotiated by her husband, former president Bill Clinton – as symbolic of the perils of free trade.

Clinton’s main Democrat challengers, Vermont senator Bernie Sanders and former Maryland governor Martin O’Malley, are both openly opposed to Obama’s trade agenda and have called on Clinton to join them.

She also addressed the issue during a stop in Iowa on Sunday, when she similarly avoided taking a concrete position – while still appearing to side with House minority leader Nancy Pelosi and congressional Democrats, not Obama.

“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.”

Clinton’s actual speech in Concord on Monday was devoid of trade policy, serving mostly as a condensed version of the remarks she delivered at her first official campaign rally in New York City over the weekend. The crowd responded enthusiastically to the issues she checked off, such as supporting climate change, a potential constitutional amendment to limit money in politics, and criticizing Republicans for pushing bills that would restrict women’s reproductive rights.

Her stop in New Hampshire, an early voting state that chose Clinton over Obama in the 2008 Democrat primary, coincided with the announcement speech of Bush, the former Florida governor whom many consider Clinton’s eventual rival.

Asked by a reporter if she had any advice for the latest candidate bearing the Bush family name – namely how Jeb could differentiate himself from his father and brother, both former presidents – Clinton chuckled but didn’t take the bait.

“That’s a very tempting question to answer. But I won’t,” she said.