Hillary Clinton on Sunday addressed the international trade deal that on Friday cost Barack Obama an embarrassing defeat by his own party, saying the president should make the best deal possible on the issue with congressional Democrats.

“Let’s take the lemons and turn it into lemonade,” Clinton told about 600 supporters at the Iowa State Fairgrounds, in implicit criticism of the president.

However, earlier in the day one opponent for the Democratic nomination in 2016, Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont, indicated how hard that might be when he called Obama’s trade policy “a disaster, that … must be defeated”.

Republicans have used trade as a means to attack the president – who is on their side on the issue – as well as Clinton. Paul Ryan, a leading House supporter of the controversial legislation that Democrats helped to defeat, said on Sunday the president must sway his own party to save the measure.

Obama was “a very lame-duck president”, Ryan told Fox News Sunday.



At issue in the trade legislation is a worker assistance programme – part of a package that includes special trade negotiating power for the president. Another vote could come this week. Ryan said the legislation could be salvaged but Obama, he said, “has work to do with his party”.

“The Democrats abandoned their president,” Ryan said, “the leader of their party, in droves, on a bill and programme that they demanded as part of this, that they previously voted for unanimously. That they asked as a part of this process. So, to me, it was stunning that they would do this to the leader of their party, the president.”

Ryan also ridiculed Clinton, saying the trade deal was “about global leadership” and adding: “And, surely, a person who was secretary of state understands something about American leadership.”

On Friday, Nancy Pelosi, the Democratic leader in the House, spoke against the president’s agenda on trade.

In Iowa on Sunday, Clinton said: “The president should listen to and work with his allies in Congress, starting with Nancy Pelosi, who had 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.”

“And if we don’t get it, there should be no deal.”

Sanders used on appearance on CBS on Sunday to outline his unchanged position.

“Finally what you’re seeing in Congress,” he said, “are Democrats and some Republicans beginning to stand up and say, ‘You know what? Maybe we should have a trade policy that represents the working families of this country, that rebuilds our manufacturing base, rather than just representing the CEOs of large multinational corporations.’”

Clinton has experienced attacks from all sides over her failure to take a position on the trade deal. On Sunday her campaign manager, Robby Mook, also appeared on CBS to defend her against ridicule from Republicans and criticism from Democrats that has included another declared contender, Martin O’Malley.

Mook said: “Hillary has not been on the sidelines … there will be no tougher fighter at the negotiating table for everyday Americans when these trade things are being negotiated, so American families can trust her to fight hard for them.”

Sanders appealed for Clinton’s support.



“Corporate America and Wall Street are going to bring that bill back to the House next week,” he said.

“I would hope very much that Secretary Clinton will side with every union in this country, virtually every environmental group and many religious groups and say this TPP policy is a disaster, that it must be defeated and that we need to regroup and come up with a trade policy which demands that corporate America starts investing in this country rather than in countries all over the world. I look forward to working with the secretary on this issue.”

Amidst the partisan and partly internecine squabbling, Obama’s labor secretary Thomas Perez appeared on ABC to say the US should set the rules for global trade. Perez said: “The world is watching us now.”

