Sanders to Clinton: The Time to Come Clean on TPP, Fast Track is 'Right Now'

With former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton about to formally kick off her presidential campaign with a rally in New York this weekend, rival for the Democratic nomination Bernie Sanders is demanding she make her positions on critical issues--especially pending trade agreements--more clear.

At a breakfast hosted by The Christian Science Monitor in Washington, D.C. on Thursday, Sanders said he is "offended by Mrs. Clinton's silence on trade and urged her to share her real views with voters," the New York Timesreported.

"Trade policies have been disastrous," Sanders reportedly said, calling on Clinton to elucidate her stance on mammoth trade deals like the Trans Pacific Partnership. "If she's against this, we need her to speak out, right now."

Sanders, of course, has been an outspoken opponent of such corporate-friendly pacts.

And the senator isn't alone in urging Clinton to come clean on trade.

"This vote is the whole ballgame," Campaign for America's Future fellow Dave Johnson wrote earlier this week, referring to Fast Track, or trade promotion authority, which the U.S. House of Representatives is expected to take up on Friday. "It won't matter what Clinton might say later about TPP, because Wall Street and the giant multinational corporations will do what it takes to make sure it will pass the Republican House and Senate."

According to the Times, "Sanders then listed a number of issues where he said Mrs. Clinton has failed to share her views, including climate change, the Keystone Pipeline and the renewal of the Patriot Act."

"What is the secretary's point of view on that?" he asked of the act that he voted against.

In a separate article, the Timesreports that in her kick-off speech on Saturday, Clinton "will directly address concerns that have emerged in the early weeks of her candidacy, telling voters they can trust her to fight for the middle class and stressing that she cares about their problems."