Carly Fiorina announced her candidacy for President of the United States over the weekend, and Glenn asked her to come onto the radio show Tuesday to discuss some of the issues. While Glenn liked some of what Fiorina had to say, he wasn’t completely sold on her as a candidate. What happened?
"We had Carly Fiorina on a few minutes ago, and I left unsatisfied," Glenn said. "I just don't feel like I found her passion."
"I strangely really like her, even though I think she danced around some of the questions... just feel like I don't know if I found her passion."
Listen to the interview below:
Stu found her answer to a question about Libertarianism a little evasive.
GLENN: How would you describe yourself when it comes to Libertarianism? Do you have any streak of Libertarianism in you?
CARLY: Well, depends what you mean by that.
GLENN: Well, I think Libertarianism -- other than being strong on individual rights and small government is really defined by the person. So how would you define Libertarianism, and do you have any of that in you?
CARLY: I certainly believe that this nation became the greatest on the face of the earth and in all of human history because our founders had basic confidence and trust in each individual and their potential, their God-given gift, and their ability to live lives of dignity, purpose, and meaning, with responsibility. I mean, that's the foundation of this nation. And so, to me, that is the core of who we are. Because this is the only nation on the face of the earth, and truly in all of human history, that was founded on this basic belief in the capacity for life of dignity and purpose and meaning on the part of an individual.
That's pretty profound. And it's incredibly important. I also think that there are things that we know work better. You know, we know that children grow up stronger if they have a loving mother and father. We know that communities are stronger when people have a stake in their community. We know that two of the most telling signs of someone's future success in life are whether they finish high school and whether they wait until they get married to bear a child. So those are issues perhaps of culture or lifestyle that I think also impact our ability to build strong communities.
Glenn, Stu, and Pat also want to hear more about her stance on illegal immigration, as she has stated her support for the DREAM Act.
GLENN: Let's go with illegal immigration. I understand you supported the DREAM Act. Is that true, and where do you stand now on illegal immigration?
CARLY: Yeah, well, I supported it after we had done a whole bunch of other things. The first thing that we need to do. And we have needed to do it for 20-plus years. This is an example of the failure of the political class. We need to secure the border. We haven't. We can. We should.
And speaking of Canada, we need to secure both the southern border and the northern border, for a whole set of reasons. Because the illegal immigration problem keeps getting worse. Because people lose faith in government when government doesn't exercise its responsibility. Because our enemies know we have a porous border.
I spent a lot of time in New Hampshire, as you can imagine. And New Hampshire is suffering from a heroin addiction epidemic. And those drugs are coming from the Canadian border. So we have to secure the border. Then, of course, the second thing we need to do is actually fix the legal immigration system. It's been broken for 25 years. Hasn't been fixed under Republicans or Democrats. We have 16 different visa programs. We don't have a reliable employer E- verify system so we can hold employers truly accountable when they hire illegals. And we send the wrong people away, and we let the wrong people in. All that needs to be done. It can be done. It should be done. It just hasn't been done.
GLENN: But there's no appetite. There's absolutely no appetite.
CARLY: Ah, but that's a question of leadership. See, Glenn, there is an appetite in the country. You and I know that.
GLENN: I do know that.
CARLY: I've been talking to people a lot. People want these things done. They are a basic test of competence in government. And government fails so many tests of competence. But all of these things -- take leadership, which is why I'm running for presidency.
PAT: Carly, what would you do to secure the border? We've tried to have a bill that mandated a border fence. They finished about 5 percent of it the way it was supposed to be built. But what would you -- what steps would you take?
CARLY: You and I know, Glenn, and, by the way, the American people know too, that it's really not rocket science to secure a border. It takes manpower. It takes money. But mostly it takes will. Political willpower. So let's just go get it done. This isn't difficult, actually. It's just, no one will get it done. Just like no one will fix the VA. We continue to serve our veterans in such a poor way. It's like no one will fix the fact that Tom Coburn every year lays out in excruciating detail hundreds upon hundreds of billions of dollars of fraud, waste, abuse, and corruption. No one in Washington does anything about it. None of these things are difficult to do. They just haven't been done.
