Former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina said on “Fox News Sunday” that the probability she’ll seek the Republican nomination for president in 2016 is “higher than 90%” and said she expects to announce her decision on whether to run in late April or early May.
Explaining her thinking on the decision, Fiorina said, “We need to make sure we have the right time in place, that we have the right support, that we have the right financial resources lined up, just as all the other candidates have done.”
Mrs. Fiorina, who ran an unsuccessful campaign for senate in California in 2010, is the only major female Republican who is considering a presidential run. As such, she has drawn comparisons to Hillary Clinton on the Democratic side. And Fiorina came out swinging against the former secretary of state over Clinton’s current email controversy, saying, “There’s a competence issue now. Anyone in 2015 who says you can’t have two email accounts on a single device obviously doesn’t understand technology.” Fiorina also criticized Clinton’s tenure as secretary of state, saying, “Flying is an activity, not an accomplishment.”
But “Fox News Sunday” host Chris Wallace brought up questions surrounding Fiorina’s own tenure at the helm of Hewlett-Packard from 1995 to 2005, which ended with her being forced out as the company’s stock plummeted and tens of thousands of workers lost their jobs.
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“I think you’re reading the Democratic talking points,” Fiorina responded. “When you are managing through the worst technology recession in 25 years, sometimes there are tough calls that need to be made for the overall health of the enterprise.” She added, “In the end, we took a company that was really struggling and turned it into an exceedingly successful company where overall jobs grew,” and further boasted, “We took Hewlett-Packard from about $44 billion to $88 billion in six years.”
Fiorina faces an uphill climb if she wants to win the Republican presidential nomination. In a recent CNN/ORC poll, fewer than 1% of respondents supported her. Indeed, some pundits are theorizing that Fiorina is really angling for a Republican vice presidential nomination.
But when Wallace mentioned the vice presidential speculation, Fiorina dismissed it, saying, “If I run for president, it’s because I can win the job and do the job.”
Daniel Berger