Carly Fiorinia, Senator Ted Cruz’s choice for vice president, joined me Friday morning:

Audio: 04-29hhs-fiorina

Transcript:

HH: I’m so pleased to welcome to the Hugh Hewitt Show, Carly Fiorina, who is going to be one of the three people who will be the next vice president of the United States of America, two of whom who have not yet been named if Donald Trump is the nominee, it will be someone different, and Hillary has not named her running mate yet. But Ted Cruz has. Carly Fiorina, welcome back and congratulations.

CF: Good morning, Hugh, thank you so much for having me.

HH: I’m wondering how the reception is in Indiana to you even though the Colts fans are focused on the NFL draft right now.

CF: (Laughs) Yes, well, the Colts fans are indeed quite focused on the NFL draft, but the reception here has been amazing. Really amazing. It’s just great to see all the people turn out and we need enthusiasm so I feel really encouraged and very lifted up by their support.

HH: The Colts drafted Ryan Kelly as their center as someone who can–every down is the absolute necessity for Andrew Luck, their star quarterback to play well with. It’s not unlike the relationship between a president and a vice president. They got to be able to rely on each other. What did you and Senator Cruz talk about when it came down to the selection whether you can work together for four or eight years?

CF: Well, you know it’s interesting. We’ve been working together for seven weeks and working very closely together. I endorsed him publicly about seven weeks ago, as you know, I voted for him in the privacy of the voting booth in Virginia, my home-state before I ever had a conversation with him about endorsing him and so I thought long and hard about why I think he will make [the] best nominee for our party and the best president for our country. And we’ve been on the bus together, campaigning for seven weeks. I’ve gotten to know him, not just as a candidate, although I obviously I learned a lot more about how he interacts with people which is wonderful to see, but also a lot about him as a husband, as a father.

his wife and kids are on the bus most of the time, and as a friend, his friends like Mike Lee have been on the bus, Scott Walker. . . And in the end, what we talked about was was what kind of vice president he was looking forward and I was reassured to hear that he was looking for a partner. He recognizes that there is a lot of really tough work that has to be done. The system indeed is corrupt and broken, and that system has to be challenged and power has to be restored where it belongs, in the hands of the citizens of this nation, and money needs to leave Washington and go to communities and states. That’s hard, tough work. And it’s going to require more than a great leader and president, but a team of people around him who will do their share, and so I look forward to continuing to partner with Ted on the campaign and winning this nomination in Cleveland and I very much look forward to partnering with him to defeat Hillary Clinton and I look forward to partnering with him in his administration.

HH: Carly Fiorina, you just mentioned Senator Mike Lee, he called my friend, Mark Levin’s show yesterday, as angry as I’ve ever heard Mike Lee over what I call the despicable comments of former Speaker Boehner about Senator Cruz. Your comments on the Speaker’s slashing attack, the “Lucifer” comment.

CF: Well, it is despicable. It’s beyond the pale, but I think it tells you everything you need to know about Donald Trump. John Boehner said, “Yeah, we’re texting and golfing buddies.” Okay, great. That is why I have been crystal-clear in saying that Donald Trump will never challenge the system because he’s texting and golfing buddies with John Boehner, he’s a seven-time contributor to Hillary Clinton. He’s contributed to the DCCC as well as the National Republican Congressional Committee. How do you do that? You do that if you game the system. You do that if you’ve learned that your billions come from buying politicians off, it’s called “crony capitalism” as I have said to you on this show many times, Hugh. Donald Trump will not challenge the system, he is the system.

HH: Carly Fiorina, when he makes a slashing attack as he did last night in Orange County on Islamists and he cites General Jack Pershing in a fable about dipping bullets in pigs blood. Does he advance the cause of winning the war against Islamists or does he hurt it, Donald Trump?

CF: Of course he hurts it. Look, we need to be clear about our enemies and radical Islamic terrorism is our enemy. They have declared war on us and therefore, we must accept that challenge and defeat them, but when you lump everyone together, when you fail to acknowledge that we need allies in the Muslim world to help defeat this enemy, it may be a great cheer line at a rally, but once again, it reveals the lack of judgement, the lack of temperament, the lack of sophistication necessary to be a commander-in-chief, and nothing in his much-blunted foreign policy speech changes any of those concerns. Donald J. Trump cannot be our nominee. I have said that from the moment he announced his candidacy, he cannot be our president, I am out here fighting as hard as I know how for the soul of our party and the future of our nation.

HH: There was a combativeness gap which I think you helped close, meaning a lot of Republicans want the battle taken to Hillary Clinton and calling Hillary crooked wins him votes. You have never shied away from taking on Hillary Clinton from day one. Do you think that’s going to help the Cruz-Fiorina ticket that you have indeed established a record as a tech exec on the server that you have indeed established a record of a successful businesswoman, the first ever to lead a Fortune 50 company as having competencies that the former Secretary clearly doesn’t have. Do you close that gap that may exist, that may power Donald Trump right now?

CF: Well look, I haven’t seen Donald Trump be particularly effective in taking on Hillary Clinton with all do respects, I mean he called her a great Secretary of State, contributed twice to her presidential campaign, contributed to her senate campaign. Really? I don’t think he’s going to take on Hillary Clinton very effectively nor do I think he has and beyond that, his positions are indistinguishable from her’s on way too many issues. You know how you win elections? With clear contrasts. So now what we have is a real clear contrast. Cruz and Fiorina or Trump and Hillary, and I do think they are two sides of the same coin, I have always believed that, so you can count on me continuing to be highly-critical in a fact-based way about Hillary Clinton’s lack of accomplishments, about her failures on every single foreign policy challenge that has ever faced her, on the fact that her positions are bad for this nation and on the reality that we cannot trust her because demonstrated over and over again that she will say whatever she has to say to serve her ambition, but much of it simply isn’t true.

HH: Carly Fiorina, Ross Douthat had an amazing column in the New York Times yesterday, pointed out there are 300 million Americans, about 125 million will vote in the fall. Donald Trump won about 10 million. His supporters believe he can carry Pennsylvania and New York and Corey Lewindowski said on radio yesterday, he can carry Massachusetts. They believe in data that does not exist because they don’t believe the data that does exist. Can, in your view, Donald Trump win in the fall?

CF: He cannot win and every poll says he cannot win, and it’s not even close, Hugh. He loses by a lot to Hillary Clinton, but think about it, as a Republican, as a conservative, I care about values and principles and policies. For me, someone doesn’t just get to put an “R” on their jersey and say, “I’m an ‘R’.” And what we’ve always said is we can only win elections with clear contrasts. We can only win elections when we put a crystal-clear choice in front of the voters. How many people on your shows have said, well, we lost against Barack Obama, with Mitt Romney. We lost against Barack Obama with John McCain because the contrast wasn’t clear enough. The choice wasn’t clear. Well, I tell you what. [When] the Republican party puts up Donald Trump, there is no choice, there is no contrast. And so, we will lose.

HH: How does Cruz-Fiorina win, and how in winning do you change the map of 2012 by which Mitt Romney meaning Florida-Virginia, Ohio and Colorado?

CF: Well first, let’s not jump too far ahead of ourselves. We’re here in Indiana, we’re working really hard and then we’re going to go on to California, the Golden State is really going to matter in a presidential primary. Isn’t that exciting for the people of California?

HH: Finally, the first time in my lifetime.

CF: Exacty, isn’t that very exciting? And then we’re going to get to Cleveland and Donald Trump – we were talking about football, if I’m at the NFL, Donald Trump is wanting think, “Well, I’m close.” Guess what? The 30-yard line isn’t a touchdown. The 20-yard line isn’t a touchdown. The 5-yard line isn’t a touchdown. It’s not a touchdown until it’s a touchdown, until it’s passed the 0-yard line and it isn’t a field-goal until the ball flies through the goalpost. So Donald Trump isn’t going to get to 1237 delegates. He is not. And when he doesn’t get there, and when he doesn’t win on the first ballot, he loses. So now, we go on, we go on to a general election, which is your point, and here we have a crystal-clear choice between a set of policies that Hillary Clinton has endorsed. Gee, more amnesty, let’s double down on Barack Obama’s terrible executive orders on immigration, let’s double-down on job-killing EPA regulations. Poor Pennsylvania understands that energy creates jobs, New York understands that energy creates jobs, California, boy, do they really understand, when you put a fish over the working lives of families, what happens to the Central Valley of this state?

HH: A judge-imposed drought, a federal bureaucrat, imposed a drought has wiped out the Central Valley for people outside of California. I’ll be right back with Carly Fiorina, don’t go anywhere, America, it’s the Hugh Hewitt Show.

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HH: 22 minutes after the hour, America. Good morning. I am talking with Carly Fiorina on the Hugh Hewitt Show. Carly Fiorina, Jane Harmon is on right now, smashing Donald Trump over the woman comment he made on Tuesday night. What was your thought about that comment and can you help Ted Cruz his gender gap which is real, though not as large as Donald Trump’s?

CF: Well, Donald Trump sort of has only a couple of tricks up his sleeve. He shouts and complains and insults, so I guess that’s the way he’s going to campaign against Hillary. He cannot contrast his position with her’s, he agrees with her too much. He can’t say, “Gee, I’ve always known that Hillary Clinton would be terrible for this nation,” because he has in fact supported her, over and over again in her ambitions, whether it was to be president or to be senator or he said “Wow, she’d make such a fantastic Secretary of State. So the only thing he has is to try and insult her or perhaps insult her husband. Well, guess what? It doesn’t work. It doesn’t work, it’s not going to work with women, it’s not going to work with men. Yes, it works with some people. They say, “Oh yes, insult Hillary Clinton.” The only way to beat Hillary Clinton is to be crystal-clear about why she is so wrong for the future of this nation. The only way to beat Hillary Clinton is not to insult her for her gender or anything else, it is to say crisply and factually, this woman has been wrong on virtually every challenge that has ever faced her. This woman has no track record of accomplishment, this woman has unfortunately a track record of shady dealings and shading the truth. That’s the way to beat Hillary Clinton.

HH: Carly Fiorina, your dad was a highly-respected federal judge. I asked Senator Cruz at one of the debates if he trusted Donald Trump on appointing judges and his answer is on the record absolutely not, and he gave his reasons why. You know judges (laughs), you were raised by one. Do you trust Donald Trump when it comes to the Supreme Court and to the lower courts?

CF: Absolutely not. And by the way, when Donald Trump was asked this question at one point before somebody told him he better change his answer, he said, “Well yes, my sister would make a great Supreme Court pick.” Donald Trump is a liberal. He’s not a Republican and he’s not a conservative. And as I just said, you don’t just get to put an “R” on your jersey. I’m a conservative who actually thinks that principles and values and policies and convictions matter. And remember when Ben Carson said, “He’s just a different person in private than he is in public.” Well, let me tell all your listeners something. The most important decisions that a president ever makes are always made in private. The public isn’t going to see their deliberations, so we better know what their convictions are, and you learn someone’s convictions by watching the pattern of their life, not by listening to some speech, and the pattern of Donald Trump’s life is this: he’s a liberal. He uses the sysem, he buys politicians off to get what he wants, which is a good real estate deal or to enrich himself. And so when Donald Trump’s in private, there is no reason to trust him, and I don’t.

HH: Carly–

CF: . . . And I’m going to fight as hard as I can to defeat him because he cannot be our nominee. It will destroy the soul of our party.

HH: Carly Fiorina, a last question. The first and most important decision a presidential nominee makes is the selection of their vice presidential running mate. He has selected you saying you ready to be president. Now Republicans have had trouble out of the gate with Sarah Palin and Dan Quayle and others, not with Dick Cheney. I have zero worry about you sitting down with any reporter who wants to quiz on international affairs. Has anyone yet tried to trip you up or are they seeding that ground realizing you know your stuff?

CF: Well, thank you. Yes, I do know something about the world (laughs) and our challenges and I hope I’ve demonstrated that convincingly throughout my own presidential run and will continue to demonstrate that as Ted Cruz’s running mate. Sure, reporters try to trip you up all the time, but if you know what you know and you know what you believe and you’re always willing to learn when presented with new facts, then I think it’s hard to trip that kind of person up.

HH: Carly Fiorina, again, congratulations, I’m putting you down for a monthly if you become vice president of the United States, I hope you’ll agree with that too.

CF: (Laughs).

HH: A monthly interview on the Hugh Hewitt Show.

CF: Hey, always pitch it, Hugh, I admire that.

HH: (Laughs) Thank you, Carly Fiorina, talk to you soon.

End of Interview