WASHINGTON (CBS DC) — Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., continued demands for fellow Democratic presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton to take a stand on the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a 12-nation trade agreement currently being debated by Congress.

The trade deal failed to pass through the House Friday afternoon by a vote of 126-302.

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Sanders continues to reiterate his “respect” for Clinton and said again he is running on issues and not on personal attacks against the former secretary of state or other potential presidential candidates. Sanders said he and Clinton “disagree on a number of issues,” with the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) being in “forefront” of their disagreements currently.

Sanders expressed concern about the amount of authority given to President Barack Obama – something Republican leaders have seemingly dismissed in a rare break of partisan lines. Obama took on an aggressive lobbying campaign with Democrats in the House to support the trade vote Friday. The House GOP majority needed a large number of Democrats to support the bill for it to have passed.

“I frankly don’t understand how you could be a major candidate for president of the United States — Hillary Clinton, or anybody else — and not have an opinion on that issue. You can be for it, you can be against it,” he said in an interview with Bloomberg’s Al Hunt on the Charlie Rose Show on Thursday.

“Trade policies have been disastrous,” he said. “If she’s against this, we need her to speak out, right now.”

Sanders called out Clinton for refusing or delaying a public stance on the TPP, a trade agreement backed by Obama and a large number of congressional Republicans – but opposed by a wide array of Democrats.

Sanders said he has helped lead the effort against “all of these terrible trade agreements that have cost us millions of jobs,” while Clinton has yet to take a stand on the TPP. She has said the terms of the trade agreement haven’t been finalized or publicly released.

“I want to judge the final agreement,” Clinton told reporters in Iowa last month.

Sanders said the fact the trade agreement remains a secret “talks to the reason why you should vote against it.”

“If a major, major bill, which deals with 40 percent of the world’s economy, is coming before the United States Congress and members of Congress don’t know what’s in it, you think that might be a good reason to vote against it,” he said.

Sanders said that while Congress is voting on trade promotion authority – and not the TPP itself – giving Obama that authority amounts to voting for the trade agreement.

“If the fast-track gets passed, TPP gets passed,” he said.