GOP presidential candidate Carly Fiorina said Wednesday that President Obama is most passionate and fired up when he’s arguing with Republicans and that politics is his “North Star.”

“It’s all he gets fired up about — arguing with Republicans,” the former Hewlett-Packard CEO said on Fox News. “That’s what he gets fired up about. He doesn’t get fired up about [the Islamic State], he doesn’t get fired up about the threat to the homeland, he doesn’t get fired up about what we need to do to change our strategy to defeat them. He gets fired up about attacking Republicans.

“Clearly, this president reveals once again that politics is his North Star — it is always politics,” Mrs. Fiorina said.

Earlier, Mrs. Fiorina had responded to comments Mr. Obama made this week at a summit in Manila about Republicans, some of whom have said the United States should not be accepting any Syrian refugees in the wake of the Paris attacks.

“Apparently they’re scared of widows and orphans coming to the United States of America as part of our tradition of compassion,” Mr. Obama said. “At first they were worried about the press being too tough on them during debates. Now they’re worried about 3-year-old orphans. That doesn’t sound very tough to me.”

Mr. Obama also said that rhetoric coming out during the ongoing debate is a potent recruitment tool for the Islamic State terrorist group, also known as ISIS and ISIL.

Mrs. Fiorina said it was “outrageous” that the president would use his time immediately following a terrorist attack to go after Republicans.

“This is revealing of the fact that President Obama doesn’t understand the nature of the threat — I guess he’s like Hillary Clinton, he thinks Republicans are his enemies,” Mrs. Fiorina said. “He’s a politician, not a leader. And here’s the reality of the situation: he ought to be focused on the real enemy. He ought to understand the threat that is ongoing and here, once again, he somehow believes that it is Republicans’ words that are a recruitment tool for ISIS.

“Honestly, he doesn’t understand the nature of the threat,” she said. “He never has — it is outrageous. There’s nothing that we’re going to say or do that causes ISIS to do what they do. They are at war with us. They are at war with this nation, they are at war with our way of life, they are at war with Europe, and President Obama is speaking in a way that is beneath his office.”

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