Obama: Warren is wrong on trade

President Obama says he loves Elizabeth Warren, but the Massachusetts senator is wrong about free trade.

"I would not be doing this trade deal if I did not think it was good for the middle class," Obama said Tuesday during a taping of the MSNBC program Hardball. "When you hear folks make a lot of suggestions about how bad this trade deal is, when you dig into the facts, they are wrong."

Warren and other Democratic lawmakers say free trade deals undercut U.S. workers, ship jobs overseas, and lead to environmental exploitation of other nations.

A proposed deal with Asian nations is "going to help the rich get richer and leave everyone else behind," Warren has said; some Democrats are urging the first-term Massachusetts senator to seek the party's presidential nomination in 2016 against Hillary Clinton.

In the Hardball interview, Obama told host Chris Matthews that "I love Elizabeth. We're allies on a whole host of issues. But she's wrong on this."

Obama is currently working on the proposed Trans-Pacific Partnership with Asian nations, and a separate trade deal with European countries.

The president and his aides are also lobbying for Democratic congressional votes in favor of Trade Promotion Authority. The bill would enable the administration to put together a final agreement for an up-or-down vote in Congress with no amendments.

Some lawmakers want labor and environmental standards in trade deals. Obama said those would be included in what he sends to Congress.

"Everything I do has been focused on how do we make sure the middle class is getting a fair deal," Obama said on MSNBC.