Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton’s choice to head her transition team is stoking anger and loathing among left-wing anti-fracking activists and anti-trade groups.
Clinton’s choice to handpick former Democratic Sen. Ken Salazar of Colorado to lead her transition team is leaving critics of the TPP trade policy and anti-fossil fuel activists scratching their heads, as the former secretary of Interior has expressed support in the past for the trade deal and fracking.
Neil Sroka, the communications director of Democracy for America, told reporters Saturday that the choice to pick Salazar does not necessarily serve as a death knell to Clinton’s position against the much-ballyhooed trade policy, but it does not help her among critics of the trade.
“It’s not helping the concerns she’s trying to allay,” Sroka said, referring to worries from the Sen. Bernie Sanders supporters, most of whom are critical of Clinton’s positions on fracking and trade.
Clinton should say, stalwartly, that “this vote doesn’t need to happen, shouldn’t happen and she will play a role in opposing it if it does,” Sroka added.
Adam Green, co-founder of the Progressive Change Campaign Committee, mirrored Sroka’s stance, telling reporters that, “Now more than ever, Hillary Clinton should press the White House to take the TPP definitively off the table in the lame duck Congress.”
Adding to the angst is the former secretary of state’s vice presidential nominee, Virginia Sen. Tim Kaine. The former governor of Virginia has served in the U.S Senate since 2012 – and during that time, he etched out favorable positions on natural gas, and voted in favor of granting Obama fast-track authority.
Other anti-TPP Democrats, meanwhile, are taking the Salazar choice in stride.
Democratic Rep. Rosa DeLauro of Connecticut, a fierce opponent of the TPP, for instance, said in a press statement that she isn’t concerned about the Salazar appointment.
“Secretary Clinton has made her opposition to the Trans-Pacific Partnership very clear, having stated that she opposes the agreement now, will oppose it after the election, and will oppose it once in office,” DeLauro said in a statement.
She said that, if anything, Clinton’s decision to land on Salazar only “shows that advocates for the corporate drafted agreement are willing to switch sides and work to build an economy that works for every American worker.”
Still, the move could foreshadow the type of presidential administration anti-TPP activists fear.
David Sirota, senior editor for investigations at International Business Times, told an interviewer Tuesday that Clinton’s choices for the transition team are “very important to understanding what may be coming in a Clinton administration policywise.”
They may also help the electorate gauge whether the policies crafted by Clinton’s administration are likely to comport with those proposed during campaign season, Sirota added.
“What we do know is that he will have a very serious hand in helping staff the Clinton administration, that he will have a hand in helping put personnel into the administration across the federal government,” Sirota told reporter at the time of the announcement.
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