GOP presidential candidate Carly Fiorina said Thursday morning she doesn’t think people on the terrorist watch list should be barred from owning guns because her friend was on the watch list and owned a gun.

Fiorina, talking to the hosts of MSNBC’s Morning Joe, said it was an error that her best friend’s husband was on the list, then explained her position by saying that the government “screws up all that time.”

ADVERTISEMENT

“You know, my best friend’s husband was on the watch list for years, it was a complete mistake. He also happened to be a gun owner,” Fiorina said after being pressed by host Joe Scarborough about people on the watch list not being able to board planes but being able to buy guns. “If I had utter faith in the competence of government, I might agree with that. But do you? I don’t. The government screws up all the time.”

Scarborough then pointed out the government makes mistakes, but “do you throw out the baby with the bathwater, where you’re saying because they screw up in 1 or 2 percent of the terror watch list… you’re talking about a red herring, Carly.”

Fiorina then insisted the real red herring is that if someone is a suspected terrorist they can be indicted, and if they own a gun illegally, they can be prosecuted.

Watch the exchange, via MSNBC, here:

