Clinton delegates on the platform committee must feel pretty good about Pennsylvania and Ohio as they voted down opposition language to the TPP. I certainly hope they are right for their will be a three day long infomercial about it in Cleveland next week.
The platform draft as it stands recognizes that there are "a diversity of views" on the deal within the party.
The platform committee's decision means that the fight over the TPP is likely to continue at the convention later this month.
Sanders supporter Jonathan Tasini told
CNN "there's absolutely no doubt" that his side will file a "minority report," and challenge the trade agreement at the DNC in Philadelphia.
The Sanders campaign’s primary Amendment, written by surrogate Jim Hightower, would have prevented the trade deal from ever coming to a vote in Congress. Hightower called the TPP a "little shop of corporate horrors." Other Sanders delegates held up boxes, passed out by the campaign, filled with an estimated 700,000 signatures for petitions against the TPP. The amendment failed, prompting boos from audience members, some of whom walked out of the meeting room.
But…
The committee earlier approved by a wide margin an amendment submitted by Lee Saunders, president of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, with input from the broader union movement, which set out several specific complaints against trade deals and said TPP will be held to a similar standard.
“This amendment is a clear statement of where we stand on the Trans-Pacific Partnership and all other trade deals, past and future: We stand with American workers and against bad trade deals," the AFSCME said in a statement. "Our bold statement in support of fair trade standards for working people passed overwhelmingly, by a count of 117 to 64.”