Carly Fiorina blasts Hillary for hiding from the press
GOP presidential candidate talks feminism and 2016 on 'Hannity'
This is a rush transcript from "Hannity," May 13, 2015. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.
SEAN HANNITY, HOST: Welcome back to "Hannity." Get this. It's been 22 days since Hillary Clinton has fielded a question from the press, and she's yet to do a sit-down interview with a national media reporter since announcing her candidacy for president on April the 12th.
Let's put this into perspective. Former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina -- she announced she was running for president on May the 5th. Since that day, by our count, Fiorina has now done 21 interviews. Again, Clinton zero.
As for the number of questions fielded by reporters, Fiorina has taken 322, and just 8 at that flimsy press conference for Hillary Clinton.
Here with reaction, author of "Rising to the Challenge," 2016 GOP presidential candidate Carly Fiorina.
She's hiding. What -- why -- how does she get away with hiding?
(LAUGHTER)
CARLY FIORINA, R-PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: You think? Well, you're right, she is hiding. And the only thing that heartens me about all of this is The New York Times has this new regular feature called "Questions we would ask Hillary Clinton if we only had the opportunity."
But you know, Sean, as you and I have talked about before, she's going to get away with a lot until and unless we have a nominee who won't let her get away with anything.
HANNITY: You know, it's amazing -- we sit -- there was a -- there was a team of reporters that went out there, and they actually asked questions about Hillary. This is amazing, how little people really know about her. I want you to watch this and react to it.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: As senator, Hillary Clinton paid women 72 cents for each dollar that she paid men.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Really? She really did that?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I don't even know what to say right now. I'm kind of shocked.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: That makes no sense. That makes no sense. Like, why would -- why would -- I'm stuck.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Whoa.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That's terrible. That's -- I guess that's just reprehensible. It really -- it really would...
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: If she's for equal pay, then why did she do that?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HANNITY: Every one of those people first said that they were for her, voting for her. They know nothing about her! Pretty amazing that she's in hiding like this. Your reaction?
FIORINA: Well, I think she's in hiding because perhaps she knows what you just showed -- in other words, that people have this image of her. They think they know her. They think they want to vote for her. And the more they learn, the less they want to vote for her.
And so if you're in that situation, you don't want people to know any more. You certainly don't want to answer a question about foreign governments making donations to your family foundation while you're serving as secretary of state. You certainly don't want to answer questions about why you had a server in your basement. You don't want to answer questions about Benghazi.
I mean, there are a whole series of questions that she really doesn't want to answer, and so she is hiding.
HANNITY: You know, it's interesting how the media is attacking you personally. I was watching one of the Sunday programs this Sunday, and it's as though, Oh, she's not going to be president, but she can attack Hillary because, basically, you're not a man. And I felt that was sexist. What was your reaction to that?
FIORINA: Well, you know, it's funny that you say that, Sean, because I must say I kind of react that way. People say, Well, you're attacking Hillary. First of all, I'm not attacking Hillary. I'm asking questions. I'm asking very legitimate questions about her transparency, her trustworthiness, her track record.
I'm not asking because I'm a woman. I'm asking because I come from a world where those things count. I come from a world where actions speak louder than words. I come from a world where we are held to account for our decisions. I come from a world where people ask, Are your actions consistent with your word?
So I'm asking questions that I think are entirely legitimate. The fact that she's held a bunch of highfalutin' titles is interesting. The fact that she hasn't accomplished anything while she held those titles is more interesting.
HANNITY: You know, considering the war on women was such a big issue in the 2012 campaign, this is now -- you got an intramural battle within the Democratic Party, where Sherrod Brown and National Organization for Women have accused President Obama of being sexist for his comments about Elizabeth Warren, who is opposing this trade deal.
And he actually went on to say, Well, the truth of the matter is that Elizabeth -- he didn't say senator -- a politician like everybody else, she's got a voice she wants to get out there, I understand that now. And Sherrod Brown said it's sexist.
Are we sensitive to the word? Is that appropriate in this case? I wanted to get your reaction.
FIORINA: Well, You know, I think the word "feminism" -- let's just back up for a moment. To me, a feminist is a woman who chooses her own life. The life she chooses could be to have five children and stay home and home school them. The life she chooses could be to go on to work. But a woman should have the opportunity to choose her own life.
Unfortunately, these words get politicized, and the word "feminist" got politicized by the National Organization for Women, and NOW is clearly a political organization. They want to put forward a particular political agenda.
So for example, Hillary Clinton during the 2014 elections said when she was campaigning against Joni Ernst for Bruce Braley -- she said, Well, it's not enough to be a woman. You have to be a woman who believes, and she then went on and listed the liberal orthodoxy.
And that is how these folks think, that unless you fit their orthodoxy, you don't count as a woman, you don't count as an African- American, you don't count as a Hispanic. And of course, that's ridiculous. We need to take gender and race out of all these conversations. We need to unify the nation once again. But Hillary Clinton will try to make gender the issue in her election.
HANNITY: It's amazing. I thought your definition was probably one of the most interesting I've ever heard. Let me ask -- all the candidates now are being asked -- and I haven't seen your answer, so if you've been asked this before, forgive me. Knowing what we know now about Iraq, what's your answer? What would you have done?
FIORINA: Well, the intelligence was clearly wrong. And so had we known that the intelligence was wrong, no, I would not have gone in. And I have said publicly on many occasions going into Iraq was mismanaged and coming out of Iraq was mismanaged.
It is also true, having known the head of the CIA at that time, known the head of military intelligence in the United Kingdom at that time, it's also true, in President Bush's defense, that the intelligence community was pretty unified in their strong belief that Saddam Hussein did have WMD. He did not. The intelligence was obviously highly faulty. And so knowing that now, no, I would not have gone in.
HANNITY: All right, Carly Fiorina, we look forward to seeing you again soon. Thanks for being with us.
FIORINA: Thank you.
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