Anne-Marie Slaughter, Hillary Clinton aide, hails TPP as one of her boss’ accomplishments at State

The day before Hillary Clinton announced she didn’t support President Obama’s Pacific trade deal, an aide to the former Secretary of State took to NPR’s airwaves to declare her work on it as one of Mrs. Clinton’s accomplishments.

Anne-Marie Slaughter, the former director of policy planning at the State Department, has been voicing support for the former Secretary of State and her bid for the White House, and was asked by the NPR reporter to name one of Mrs. Clinton’s accomplishments at the agency.

Ms. Slaughter quickly cited her work on the trade pact. Here’s her reply:

“She also was one of the architects of you know, the turn to Asia. … People may not like the trade agreement with Asia, but her point was we have to focus on re-strengthening our alliances with Japan, with the Philippines, with Thailand, with Southeast Asian countries. And we have to engage China, but we also have to be tough with China and that was a lot of Hillary Clinton’s work,” Ms. Slaughter said in a Oct. 6 interview.

A day later, Mrs. Clinton stunned many by issuing the following statement on the trade deal she helped lay the ground work for as secretary of state: “I’m continuing to learn about the details of the new Trans-Pacific Partnership, including looking hard at what’s in there to crack down on currency manipulation, which kills American jobs, and to make sure we’re not putting the interests of drug companies ahead of patients and consumers. But based on what I know so far, I can’t support this agreement.”