Former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina, who has not shrunk from criticizing former Secretary of State and 2016 Democratic presidential front-runner Hillary Rodham Clinton, says Mrs. Clinton’s ambition for the White House “far outweighs” her ability to be an effective leader.
“I think she’s a hard-working, intelligent woman who has dedicated her life to public service,” Ms. Fiorina said. “I think her ambition to be president far outweighs her ability to be an effective leader.”
Ms. Fiorina had been asked on Fox News’ “Hannity” program for rapid-fire responses on Mrs. Clinton, President Obama, and some of her GOP rivals.
In the early stages of her presidential campaign, Ms. Fiorina has been relentless in her criticism of Mrs. Clinton over issues involving transparency, the Clinton Foundation, and the former secretary of state’s response to the Sept. 11, 2012, terrorist attack on a U.S. compound in Benghazi.
The former business executive was in a tie for fifth place among the GOP field in the early state of New Hampshire in a CNN/WMUR poll released this week.
For her part, Ms. Fiorina said during a different segment of the show that she thinks it’s “far more productive for me, as a candidate for the Republican primary, to be training my fire on Hillary Clinton than to be training my fire on other Republican candidates.”
“Some candidates are training all their fire on each other, and I think that’s unfortunate, actually,” she said.
She said she hopes there’s not a certain level of fear or timidity on the part of other Republicans.
“And just to reassure people that the left is an equal opportunity opposer, I have been called a threat to women’s health because I’m pro-life, my candidacy has been called an offense to women because I don’t agree with the litany of the left, and it’s why I gave a speech recently talking about women in America and saying we as conservatives have to take this conversation back,” she said.
“We cannot continue to allow women, who are 54 percent of voters now — we’re the majority of the nation — we can’t just give up on the women’s vote,” she continued. “We have to talk directly to women about why our principles work better.”
• David Sherfinski can be reached at dsherfinski@washingtontimes.com.
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