Loading ...Carly Fiorina Attacks Hillary Clinton at CPAC
Thursday, 26 Feb 2015 14:33 PM
Potential Republican presidential candidate Carly Fiorina took on Hillary Clinton in her speech at the Conservative Political Action Conference on Thursday, questioning the former secretary of state’s record and launching an apparent attack on contributions that her family’s foundation received from foreign governments.
“Mrs. Clinton, please name an accomplishment,” Fiorina, the former Hewlett-Packard CEO and Senate candidate, said. “And in the meantime, please explain why we should accept that the millions and millions of dollars that have flowed into the Clinton Global Initiative from foreign governments does not represent a conflict of interest.”
She also hit the presumed frontrunner for the 2016 Democratic nomination on her record on women’s right, the Benghazi attacks, and her approach to Russian President Vladimir Putin.
“I have met Vladimir Putin, and I know that his ambition will not be deterred by a gimmicky red reset button,” she said.
The mentions of Clinton prompted boos from the audience and applause for Fiorina.
She linked herself with another politician who has occasionally vexed Clinton, though from the other side of the political spectrum.
“Elizabeth Warren is right: Crony capitalism is indeed alive and well,” Fiorina said. “Government and government programs have grown so big, so powerful, so costly, and so complex that only the big and the powerful can prosper.”
She said Warren, the liberal Massachusetts senator, was wrong on solutions but was committed to Main Street and small businesses.
Fiorina also addressed speculation that she’s running for president obliquely, saying in a question-and-answer session after her speech that Republicans can appeal to women.
“We are not a special interest group; we are the majority of the nation,” she said. “If Hillary Clinton had to face me on the debate stage, at the very least she would have a hitch in her swing.” The audience—gathered in a hotel ballroom in National Harbor, Md., near Washington—greeted the line with whoops.
Fiorina, who has not held public office and has been a big draw at the annual conference, spoke about personal topics like her childhood, her time at Stanford, and the loss of her daughter, as well as her work for a nine-person real-estate firm after college and her leadership of HP.
She also showed off her links to foreign leaders like Putin, King Abdullah of Jordan, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and she slammed President Obama for his handling of the terrorist group Islamic State.