By Eric Bradner, CNN
Updated 9:46 PM ET, Wed March 11, 2015
Elizabeth Warren: "I'm not running for president....I don't get who writes these headlines or what they're about. I think there's just kind of a pundit world out there."
Washington (CNN)Elizabeth Warren's push to kill major trade negotiations -- backed up by the AFL-CIO's plans announced Wednesday to cut campaign contributions to its traditional Democrat allies to fight alongside her -- could become major headache for President Barack Obama.
And eventually Hillary Clinton, too.
Warren is spearheading a growing liberal push to undercut Obama's attempt to negotiate free trade deals with Pacific Rim countries and the European Union. Her beef: Corporations could gain the ability to challenge countries' laws under a complicated provision that's routinely tucked into new deals.
Clinton on email: 'I opted for convenience' 05:53
The innocuous-sounding "investor-state dispute settlement mechanism," critics on both the left and the populist right fear, would be like an independent, international court, with the power to force the U.S. government and American corporations to abide by its rulings.
The issue pits Warren against her own party's president, and on the same side as populist conservatives. The Massachusetts Democrat took aim at that provision on a conference call hosted by liberal groups on Wednesday, saying it should "raise alarm bells for everyone."
"The name may sound a little wonky, but this is a powerful provision that would fundamentally tilt the playing field further in favor of multinational corporations," Warren said. "Worse yet, it would undermine U.S. sovereignty."
Lending muscle to Warren's opposition is the AFL-CIO, which announced Wednesday that it is freezing contributions to Democratic candidates in order to pump its money into the battle to defeat Obama on trade -- a clear implication that union money will only be flowing to lawmakers who work against their party's president on the issue.
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