David Axelrod, Obama’s top political strategist, noted that “Clinton made a few mistakes,” and he listed her mischaracterization of her position on the Obama administration’s Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal, which she claimed she hadn’t fully supported in the past before coming out against it this week.
“That isn't true and was sloppy, giving her opponents another proof point in their assault on her trustworthiness,” Axelrod wrote in an otherwise praiseful CNN column that posted Wednesday morning. He also described a “weak answer” Clinton gave on her opposition to the Keystone XL pipeline and suggested that she contradicted herself when she named Republicans as her “enemies” and then pledged in her closing statement to unite the country.