American Conservative Union Foundation Co-chair and former candidate for U.S. Senate Carly Fiorina sat down with Breitbart’s own Steven K. Bannon and Alex Marlow for a special edition of ‘Breitbart News Sunday’ at the weekend Iowa Freedom Summit.
“One of the things that we want to make sure more Americans understand is that conservative principles work better for everyone, conservative principles work better to lift people up, to grow our economy, to take people out of poverty, to unlock people’s potential,” Fiorina told the Breitbart News audience.
Speaking of the annual CPAC conference, Fiorina said, “This year, when people come to CPAC we want them to leave with things that will help them make an impact in their communities.”
Marlow asked Fiorina what changes are coming to CPAC for this year.
She answered, “One of our new innovations is called CPAC University and at CPAC University people are going to have the opportunity to really dive deep on a particular idea. We have bootcamp where we are literally training activists to go back out and have an impact. We want to make sure that we have the whole debate that’s going on within conservative movement, so that we let people hear all the different points of view on issues, for example of national security.”
Bannon pointed to Fiorina’s executive experience and asked if she saw her potential position in the 2016 race as the top industrialist running for the Presidency.
Fiorina recapped her rise from the position of a secretary to the Chairman and CEO of the largest technology company in the world. “When I was a secretary, just trying to make a living, two men who had founded that little nine person firm, took a chance on me.” She then said, “Every single one of us needs someone to take a chance on us.”
Fiorina called Elizabeth Warren the classic liberal, describing that position with examples of superiors and inferiors. “What we believe as conservatives is everyone has potential and everyone has the capacity to build a life of dignity and purpose and meaning.” She continued, “We cannot entrap people in a web of dependence.”
“Elizabeth Warren doesn’t understand that yes, crony capitalism is alive and well, and big government makes it worse. And the bigger government gets, it’s true that only the big, only the powerful, only the well-connected can deal with all that big government.”
Fiorina lamented, “Here’s the sad thing: the institutions have grown under both Republicans and Democrats.”
Bannon asked Fiorina to give advice for young Carly Fiorinas today.
Fiorina responded, “First, I would say find people who will take a chance on you, ’cause they’re there. The second thing I would say, more to the heart of your question, is that’s one of the reasons why we have to revitalize small business. We are now destroying more businesses than we’re creating for the first time in U.S. history.” Third, Fiorina stated, “we have to not just train our workers, educate our children, we have to retrain our workers. There’s no reason an able-bodied 40 or 50-year-old no longer has the skills to do the 21st century job. We can retrain those people.”
Bannon, recalling Fiorina’s tough run for the U.S. Senate in California, asked, “Do you actually think elective politics is a route that you want to go?”
Fiorina responded, “First, because like all of your listeners, I love our nation, and I don’t think we have limited time to get this right. I think we are really headed in the wrong direction and we have to turn around and head in the right direction. But the second thing I would say is, I love campaigning, I find people interesting. I’ve always drawn my energy from people, I draw my joy from people.” She said she’s found on the campaign trail, “Most of the time people really do know what’s wrong and they actually do know how to fix it, it’s just no one listens.”
Marlow pointed out the number of “non-politicians” being considered as contenders for a 2016 Presidential run. He then asked Fiorina, “Do you think it’s time for a non-politician to be President?”
Fiorina’s response included, “Ours was intended to be a citizen government. Our founders didn’t envision a professional political class.”
Fiorina criticized Mitt Romney for leaving close to “18 million votes on the table.” She continued, “I think a conservative has to unify the party, and I think a conservative also has to reach out to others by telling our message and our values and our principles work better for everybody. But I also think people are getting tired and getting cynical of the formula of professional politics.”
Bannon asked, “What’s the process you go through to make a decision whether you’re in or out?”
Fiorina responded, “Well, my family is with me, so that’s of course an important thing. Now I’m looking at — can we build a political support, the financial support, and the right team, and I think I’ll make a decision in April/early May time.”
Fiorina’s speech at Saturday’s Iowa Freedom Summit centered on her comparison between herself and current Democratic 2016 Presidential frontrunner Hillary Clinton, slamming the former Secretary of State for her lack of action on the Benghazi attacks and mistaking copious air travel with effective accomplishments.
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