Republican National Committee officials immediately turned recently surfaced footage of Hillary Clinton praising the Trans-Pacific Partnership into an attack ad on Tuesday, hoping to depict her as a “liar” with a penchant for political expediency.
The latest RNC ad targeting the presumptive Democratic nominee compares comments Clinton made about the multinational trade agreement during a trip abroad in 2012 — calling it the “gold standard in trade agreements” — to the former secretary of state’s anti-TPP rhetoric on the campaign trail this election cycle.
“We’ll say no to bad trade deals, including the Trans-Pacific Partnership,” Clinton is heard saying in one soundbite.
“Hillary Clinton’s position on trade, I think, is anything but clear,” MSNBC’s Ed Schultz says at the beginning of the 44-second ad.
“Hillary Clinton’s flip-flop on TPP is the wholesale abandonment of a central priority of hers as secretary of state,” RNC Chairman Reince Priebus said in a statement accompanying the ad.
“Clinton’s willingness to abandon core positions on a whim just because it’s politically expedient is exactly why the American people struggling in the Obama-Clinton economy can’t trust that she’s fighting for them,” he added.
Donald Trump is also expected to hit Clinton for flip-flopping on trade during his speech Tuesday afternoon in Monessen, Pa.
