Obama slams Warren on trade comments

President Barack Obama has stoked the rising tensions with Sen. Elizabeth Warren and the progressive Democratic base over contentious trade negotiations.

In an interview with Yahoo! Politics published Saturday, Obama said that the Massachusetts senator’s arguments “don’t stand the test of fact and scrutiny,” and that “she is absolutely wrong,” on any trade deal’s potential to roll back the Dodd Frank Act.


Obama’s comments came during his visit to Nike headquarters in Portland where he is promoting the Trans-Pacific Partnership being negotiated between 12 countries.

Warren has argued that a bill giving Obama “fast-track” authority to approve the trade pact would “give Republicans the very tool they need to dismantle Dodd-Frank,” the 2010 law passed in the wake of the financial crisis and a signature accomplishment of the Obama administration.

The president didn’t hide his irritation at Warren’s comments, stating, “the notion that I had this massive fight with Wall Street to make sure we don’t have what happened in 2007 and 2008, and then I sign a provision to unravel it? I’d have to be pretty stupid.”

Obama said Warren’s arguments were not based on substantive evidence. “This is pure speculation,” he said. The bill has drawn ire from both congressional Republicans and Democrats.

In a further jab at Warren, Obama suggested she was playing politics with the issue. Warren is being urged to run for president in 2016 by many in the progressive wing of the Democratic Party. So far, she has declined.

Hillary Clinton, the former secretary of state and frontrunner for the Democratic nomination, hasn’t taken a concrete position on the trade negotiations. Asked her stance by an MSNBC reporter, she replied, “Any trade deal has to produce jobs and raise wages and increase prosperity and protect our security, and we have to do our part in making sure we have the capabilities and the skills to be competitive.”

The White House is under the impression that Clinton supports the trade deal.

Warren, meanwhile, has staked out firmer ground on the trade negotiations that would allow her to attack Clinton from the left, should she choose to run.

In Portland, Obama also acknowledged criticism from within the party’s progressives, but said some of his closest friends are “wrong.”

“I’ve run my last election, and the only reason I do something is because I think it’s good for the American workers and the American people and the American economy,” Obama said.