Donald Trump speaks during a campaign stop on April 27 in Indianapolis. | AP Photo Trump mocks Cruz for VP pick, but doesn't attack Fiorina in Indiana speech

Donald Trump kept uncharacteristically quiet about Carly Fiorina in his first campaign stop since Ted Cruz announced the former Hewlett Packard CEO as his running mate on Wednesday.

The Republican front-runner mocked the Texas senator’s decision to make a vice presidential pick at an evening rally in Indianapolis but did not comment on Fiorina herself, leaving the attacks to advisers Stephen Miller and Paul Manafort.


The businessman has worked to avoid alienating female voters — recently backing down from a statement that, if abortion is outlawed, women who undergo the procedure should be punished and granting an upcoming interview to Fox News anchor Megyn Kelly after several months of personal attacks. One of his few damaging debate exchanges came with Fiorina over comments criticizing her looks, making attacks on her risky.

Campaigning ahead of Indiana’s critical Tuesday primary, Trump gave Fiorina a free pass, instead going after Cruz for picking a running mate at all. “First of all you have to look. Cruz can’t win. What’s he doing picking vice presidents?” Trump said, comparing Cruz to a baseball team that had already lost the World Series. “He is the first presidential candidate in the history of this country who’s mathematically eliminated from being president who chose a vice presidential candidate.”

Trump’s advisers were less reserved, seizing on Fiorina’s record of outsourcing American jobs as the chief executive of tech giant Hewlett Packard, a line of attack that helped seal her defeat in her 2010 California Senate challenge to Democratic incumbent Barbara Boxer.

Citing Cruz’s support for free-trade policies, Miller dubbed the senator’s partnership with Fiorina “the outsourcing ticket.”

“Did you know that Carly Fiorina pioneered, pioneered the practice of outsourcing American jobs?” Miller said during introductory remarks, calling it “her great legacy in business.”

Manafort, Trump’s convention manager, struck a similar tone when asked about the announcement on Fox News on Wednesday.

“It’s a bit strange that they would announce in Indiana … when she was [known] in the private sector for outsourcing jobs and outsourcing is one of the major issues in Indiana,” he said.

Trump, who often promises on the campaign trail to prevent local businesses from outsourcing, told supporters in Indiana that he would compel Carrier Corp., which recently shuttered an Indianapolis air-conditioning factory to move operations to Mexico, to keep jobs in the United States. But he did not connect Fiorina to outsourcing.

Instead, he connected former Indiana University basketball coach Bobby Knight to winning, touting Knight’s undefeated 1975-76 season. Before launching into his stump speech, Trump introduced Knight, whose endorsement he had teased for several days, calling it “the worst-kept secret.”

Knight called Trump “the most-prepared man in history to step in as president of the United States.”

The controversial coaching legend, who allegedly choked one of his players and was later fired after a tempestuous career, predicted Trump would go down as one of the three greatest presidents in history. “They said Harry Truman wasn’t presidential, and damn he went on to be one of the three best presidents in United States history, and he at some point will be one of those also,” Knight said.

The coach touted Trump’s ability to surround himself with talented people and dismiss incompetent ones. “He’s damn good at getting rid of bad people,” Knight said.

After Knight wrapped up his remarks, Trump offered the back story, saying that Knight called him last year and urged him to run, offering an endorsement.

Trump said he took down Knight’s number and kept it in a “special place,” digging it up recently to arrange for the endorsement ahead of Indiana’s May 3 primary.

“I’ve been waiting for you to call,” Trump recalled Knight telling him, which prompted him to call the famously hot-tempered coach “a cool cat.”