FLORIDA: Even though a majority of House Democrats discarded President Obama on getting higher his trade negotiating power, two of the three Democrats who met the press hours before the Florida Democratic Party’s big summer dinner did and do support the Trans Pacific Partnership
“We are a big tent party, and we have wide ranging views on the best approach to dealing with trade,” said Debbie Wasserman Schultz, the DNC Chair and Congresswoman from South Florida at a press conference held hours before the Florida Democratic Party was going to host their annual Leadership Blue Gala at the Biltmore Hotel in Hallandale Beach
Wasserman Schultz was one of the few House Democrats who voted to support President Obama on the trade issue on Friday. She said she did so because it was an opportunity to under a Democratic President “who shares our values and focuses on making sure we have labor and environmental protection in place.”But trying to balance the division in the progressive movement about the trade deal, Wasserman Schultz acknowledged that “our friends in the labor movement have legitimate concerns. The 12-country TPP is strongly supported by groups like the Chamber of Commerce and the National Association of Manufacturers, but a populist strain in both parties led to the overwhelming defeat of the first in a series of trade bills on the agreement Hawaii Democratic Representative Tulsi Gabbard opposes the TPP. “I think we can and we need to do better,” she said, adding that it was a week “filled with a lot of emotions, a lot of passions.” But she insisted that the process isn’t dividing Democrats, saying that that the discord “makes our process stronger.”
