Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) did not allow NBC's Chuck Todd to implicate that Hillary Clinton was anything but opposed to the Trans-Pacific Partnership when he questioned her about what conventional wisdom says is the part of the debate Donald Trump didn't whiff—on trade deals. Stressing that Clinton is running on "the most progressive agenda in history," Warren told Todd she had no concerns on trade.
“She was quite explicit once the TPP came out that this is not the deal, and she has said that she will block it if she is president of the United States.,” Warren said. “There's no ambiguity here. She has been absolutely explicit about it, and we've got it — you got it on tape, you got it on video multiple, multiple times.” […]
Warren, who shares in Clinton and Trump’s opposition to the deal, blasted Trump for having “no ideas on trade” and demanded he elaborate on his proposals.
“Trump is good at fulminating. He's good at waving his hands and raising his voice, but he has no fundamental idea. He just kind of does this magic. Oh, well I'm going to negotiate a better deal,” she said, mimicking the Republican nominee. “Better deal how? What exactly is your idea, Donald Trump, for trying to do better trade for the United States? There's just no there there with him.”
Warren did a nice job there of addressing the implicit bit of projection there on Todd's part, the suggestion that Clinton says what she doesn't mean or changes positions back and forth as the audience demands. Nope, Warren emphasized, "you got it on video, multiple, multiple times." There is no equivalency here, she stressed, when it comes to the candidates' consistency in messaging or in policy.
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She also pushed back on Todd when he suggested that perhaps she has crossed a line in attacking Trump in the past and "name-calling."
The truth is, Donald Trump has serious substantive problems we need to talk about. First time I went after him in tweets were about his businesses and his business dealings. His whole claim was I am qualified to be president of the United States because I have been this very successful business man. So the first set of tweets I ever did was around just pulling that apart and saying wait a minute. You are a guy who inherited a fortune and expanded by cheating people and declaring bankruptcy and leaving workers unpaid?
That's not showing the kind of business that we need in a leader of the United States. For me I just -- this is not a distinction of talking about his small hands, it's talking about his failure to release his taxes, his bad record on business, what he says about immigrants and muslims and Latinos and African-Americans. What he says about women. It's about Donald Trump's record.
Watch.