Republican presidential candidate Carly Fiorina stated that after the border is secured, non-criminal illegal immigrants “can earn a pathway to legal status under certain circumstances” on Thursday’s broadcast of CNN’s “New Day.”
Fiorina discussed the GOP’s loyalty pledge and said that she plans to sign it and fellow candidate Donald Trump should sign the pledge as well because if one runs in a GOP primary, they’re declaring that they’re a Republican, and “it’s not simply a run of convenience. This is about, hopefully, some degree of principle here.”
When asked about the sparring between Trump and fellow candidate former Florida Governor Jeb Bush over Jeb speaking Spanish on the trail, Fiorina stated that frontrunners are going to fight with each other, and that she admires the fact that Jeb, along with many people are multilingual, and “I also think that English is the official language of the United States.”
Fiorina was then asked if she believed Trump telling Jeb to speak English was “rude.” She responded, “You know, Donald Trump has said many things that I don’t agree with, and a few that I do agree with. So I think it’s fair to say that Mr. Trump is going to continue to do what Mr. Trump does, which is say all kinds of things, some of which are shocking, a few of which are outrageous, and many of which people agree with because they’re angry and frustrated.”
Fiorina, when the discussion turned to immigration, stated, “Well, let’s start with the basics, and this is where a track record of turning words into results matters so much. We have been talking about the border for 25 years. For 25 years the border has been insecure. This is absurd. This is a fall down of a basic government responsibility. We have to secure the border, period. It takes money, yes, manpower, yes, technology, yes, but mostly…it takes political willpower and leadership. … This is not rocket science. It takes money, manpower, and technology. San Francisco has been a sanctuary city since 1989. We now have 300 of them. Every presidential cycle we talk about immigration, and yet nothing changes. This is why people are upset. So, what I would say to voters is, vote for someone who has a track record, not just of talking, but of doing. Because what I will do, is ensure that we actually secure the border. What I will do is Ensure we actually fix the legal immigration system, which has been broken for 25 years, and is a contributory to the problem.”
Fiorina continued, Well, Let’s just say, for example, we hand out Mexican border crossing cards every single day. We have no idea whether those people go home, wow. We have 16 different visa programs. We don’t have an employer verification system that works, therefore, we can’t make it mandatory. We’re the most sophisticated technological nation on the planet. I understand something about technology, it is not difficult to create an employer verification system that works, we just haven’t done it. Just like we just haven’t fixed the VA over 20 years, so 300,000 veterans die waiting for an appointment. This is about ineptitude and corruption in the federal government.”
When asked what she would do about the 12 million illegal immigrants in the US, Fiorina responded, “What I have said, consistently, over five years almost now, is first we must secure the border, to re-instill faith in the American people and our government. Second, we must fix the legal immigration system, because the legal immigration system is contributing to the illegal problem. And finally, for those who have come here illegally, and stayed here illegally, assuming they’re not criminals, in which case they have to leave the country, assuming they pay back taxes, et cetera, I do not belief they earn a pathway to citizenship. There must be consequence for breaking the law. They can earn a pathway to legal status under certain circumstances, so that they can work, but citizenship is a privilege to be earned. And I know too many people, as do you, Hispanics among them, who have studied our history, raised their hands, taken the oath, and earned the privilege of citizenship. And I don’t think you can say to them, never mind, somebody who broke the rules, gets the same privilege that you do.”
Fiorina was also asked, “you tout your record as a businesswoman at the helm of Hewlett-Packard for many years as part of why voters should elect you. But your tenure was hardly considered a runaway success. Let me read for you how the DNC categorizes what you did as the head of Hewlett-Packard. They say, ‘She negotiated a merger with Compaq where 30,000 Hewlett-Packard employees lost their jobs. Then she negotiated a $40 million golden parachute after she was fired. Here’s Carly Fiorina’s policy record: an affinity for sending American jobs overseas.’ What do you say to people who say that so many people lost their jobs under your tenure?”
She responded, “Well, of course, you are reading the DNC talking points. And here’s the thing about business, unlike politics, in business the results are crystal clear and reported in excruciating detail, every 90 days. And I had to stand up to explain those results every 90 days. If I misrepresented them in any way, I was criminally liable. Imagine if we held politicians to that standard. So, here’s the record, here are the facts. I led HP through the worst technology recession in 25 years. And yes, in order to save a company, sadly, we had to cut some jobs. But we saved 80,000 jobs, went on to grow to 160,000 jobs, and now Hewlett-Packard is 300,000 jobs. Meanwhile, some of our competitors literally went out of business, and all those jobs were lost. As well, we doubled the size of the business to almost 90 billion. We quadrupled its growth rate of revenues. We tripled innovation to 15 patents a day. We quadrupled cash flow. We went from lagging behind in every product, and every market, to leading in every product, and every market. I’ll run on that record all day long. Every single aspect of my pay was approved by shareholders ahead of time. And yep, I was fired in a boardroom brawl, about which I have been very candid and clear from the day it happened. And I was fired in that boardroom brawl because when you lead, you challenge the status quo, and when you do that, you make enemies, and that’s part of the price of leadership. But I want to tell you something, Alisyn, there are a lot of voters out there who would like a leader with the strength and the courage and the track record to actually hold government employees accountable. Just today, we learned that over 300,000 veterans have lost their lives waiting for appointments. I actually think there are few people at the VA who ought to lose their jobs.”
(h/t The Right Scoop)
Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett