Ohio Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown isn't backing down from — or apologizing for — his blast at President Barack Obama's trade agreement tirade aimed at fellow Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren.
Brown laid into the president Tuesday for referring to the Massachusetts lawmaker by her first name when Obama referred to her criticism of his push for a trade deal.
So did the National Organization for Women's president Terry O'Neill,
The Hill has reported.
Warren and other Senate Democrats had blocked debate on legislation that would've given Obama authority to complete the 12-nation Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal.
"I’m not going to get into more details. I think referring to her as first name, when he might not have done that for a male senator, perhaps?" Brown said of the president's criticism of the stunning defeat, including Warren's opposition,
The Hill reports.
But when Brown was asked Wednesday
on MSNBC if he wanted to respond to White House press secretary Josh Earnest's remark that he was "confident" Brown would apologize for implying Obama's criticism of the Massachusetts senator was sexist, Brown dug in, The Hill reports.
"I don’t want this to be personal either way," Brown said.
"This, to me, is about how we put people to work, and how our workers are retrained, and how we enforce trade rules and take care of those workers that inevitably lose their jobs from wrong-headed trade agreements."
Earnest defended the president earlier Wednesday, saying Obama has a "personal relationship with Sen. Warren" and calls many senators by their first names – and later told a White House news briefing he doesn’t "necessarily expect a public apology" from Brown, The Hill reports.
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