Carly Fiorina on why she's not afraid to take on Hillary
One-on-one with the Republican presidential candidate on 'Hannity'
This is a rush transcript from "Hannity," June 25, 2015. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.
SEAN HANNITY, HOST: Welcome to "Hannity." Carly Fiorina, the former CEO of Hewlett-Packard, burst onto the 2016 the GOP presidential scene when she announced her candidacy back in May. Tonight, she joins me for the full hour.
But first, here are some of the highlights from her campaign.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
HILLARY CLINTON, D-PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I'm getting ready to do something, too. I'm running for president.
CARLY FIORINA, R-PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Our founders never intended us to have a professional political class.
We need a leader in the White House who isn't afraid to challenge the status quo.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: She is lighting up the campaign trail.
FIORINA: Hillary Clinton must not be president of the United States.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The crowds love her. So she's trying to build up on that energy by comparing herself to Hillary. She doesn't talk about Obama. She talks about Hillary, and the base loves that.
FIORINA: I think we need a nominee who will ask her these questions about trustworthiness, about transparency and about track record.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She was the anti-Hillary in that she took questions of the media. She went out and answered every question the press had. Meanwhile, Hillary Clinton is hiding.
FIORINA: Like Hillary Clinton, I, too, have traveled hundreds of thousands of miles around the globe. But unlike Mrs. Clinton, I know that flying is an activity, not an accomplishment.
(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)
FIORINA: We need leadership in the White House now that will unlock the potential of this great nation by changing the order of things in Washington, D.C., and challenging the status quo.
I'm Carly Fiorina, and I'm running for president.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HANNITY: Joining us now for the hour, 2016 GOP presidential candidate Carly Fiorina. How are you? Good to see you.
FIORINA: I'm great. Thank you, Sean, for having me.
HANNITY: It's such a big decision to run for the biggest office in the world. Why do you want to be president?
FIORINA: I think our nation is at a pivotal point. I think ours was intended to be a citizen government. I have lived the American dream. I started as a secretary, became the chief executive of the largest technology company in the world, and I'm now running for president.
And I truly worry that my two granddaughters and all of our grandsons won't have the same opportunity. We are literally crushing the potential of this nation. We are doing so with a federal government that is bloated, bureaucratic, corrupt and inept.
And like 80 percent of the American people, I think we have a professional political class that is more focused on the preservation of its own power, title and position than on doing what needs to be done now.
HANNITY: It's interesting you say professional political class because you're not -- you're not just saying Democrats. My biggest disappointment right now is in the Republican Party, in Congress in particular. They promised they would repeal and replace "Obama care." They voted 50 times symbolically, but when it came to standing up, Ted Cruz stood alone. They didn't join him because they didn't want to use the power of the purse and get blamed for a shutdown. Same with executive amnesty.
Do you share that frustration that a lot of conservatives have?
FIORINA: I do. And in fact, I see and hear and feel that frustration in places like Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina and elsewhere all the time. People say, You know, we invest a lot of time and money in electing Republicans in a landslide in November 2014, and what has really changed?
If you even go back further, let's face it, every agency in the federal government has gotten bigger and bigger for over 40 years, Republicans and Democrats alike. How long has the Veterans Administration been a scandal? How long has the legal immigration system been broken? How many times have we seen examples of just sheer ineptitude?
HANNITY: Yes.
FIORINA: These are things that have gone on for a long time, and I think what people know in their bones is that the only way you can change that is to have someone who has the courage to challenge the status quo.
FIORINA: We're going to spend a lot of time and go into great detail on your economic plan, foreign policy issues. I want to start with what I think has separated you from some of your colleagues, and that is a willingness to be very forceful and outspoken against Hillary Clinton.
I have, for example, a tape of you saying that you're going to answer any and all questions from the media, unlike Hillary Clinton. Let's play that tape.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
FIORINA: And anyone who has sat through these avails over many months knows that I will take any question on any subject. And the vast majority of my speeches in front of anyone are about a host of issues that are important to the American people, whether it's getting small businesses going and growing again, whether it's disentangling people's lives from webs of dependence, whether it's about actually cutting our bloated federal government down to size, or whether it's about what we need to do to push back on Vladimir Putin and ISIS.
I think that the Republican Party needs a nominee who will ask these questions on a general debate stage. I hope the media will continue to ask these questions. I hope you're all very interested in asking me questions, and I appreciate very much the opportunity to answer your questions.
I hope you will continue to be as aggressive with Mrs. Clinton, wherever she is on the street corner. But yes, I think we need a nominee who will ask her these questions about trustworthiness, about transparency and about track record.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HANNITY: Hillary won't talk to the media. You're calling her out on it. And more importantly, this poll -- numerous polls now that have come out, a vast majority, 57 percent do not find her honest and trustworthy. Do you think she's honest and trustworthy?
FIORINA: No, I don't. And I think she's demonstrated that. There are just so many questions that remain unanswered. It's entirely legitimate to question all of these things about Hillary Clinton. I also think it's far more productive for me as a candidate for the Republican primary to be training my fire on Hillary Clinton than to be training my fire on other Republican candidates.
HANNITY: But you know that's coming, right? There'll be a little fire back and forth, intramural squabbling.
FIORINA: Well, some candidates are training all their fire on each other, and I think that's unfortunate, actually.
HANNITY: Do you think maybe other candidates are timid to go after Hillary as hard as you have because she's a woman? And I ask you that -- if you look at it through this prism. Rick Lazio walked over during a debate and handed Hillary Clinton a piece of paper, and you would have thought at the time it was the worst thing that any man could ever do! And then of course, Mitt Romney was accused of a war on women because he had a binder of women's resumes.
Do you think there's a fear, a certain level of timidity on the part of the Republicans?
FIORINA: Well, I hope not. And just to reassure people that the left is an equal opportunity opposer, I have been called a threat to women's health because I'm pro-life. My candidacy has been called an offense to women because I don't agree with the litany of the left.
And it's why I gave a speech recently about talking about women in America and saying, you know, we as conservatives have to take this conversation back. We cannot continue to allow women, who are 54 percent of voters now -- we're the majority of the nation -- we can't just give up on the women's vote. We have to talk directly to women about...
HANNITY: Isn't it amazing, though...
FIORINA: ... why our principles work better.
HANNITY: Isn't it amazing the things that -- the names you've been called. I see this often with black conservatives. They're called every name in the book. And yet there's such a fragile sensibility on the left, if anything is said, even if it's not meant in a negative way towards a woman or a minority. Do you see that double standard? You've living it.
FIORINA: Of course, there's a double standard. I mean, honestly, women are prepared to disagree if the disagreement is respectful. We know that. I think most men are.
But in politics -- and this is why so many people have just given up on politics. In politics, everything is an argument. Everything is vitriolic. And you're absolutely right, the left wing has a double standard.
In fact, one of the things I want to point out and will continue to point out is the policies that Hillary Clinton, for example, is espousing, the policies that Bernie Sanders is espousing, are bad for women.
HANNITY: Do you think she's a third term of Obama?
FIORINA: Yes, at least. But you know, if you listen to her speech on Roosevelt Island, she, in fact, is doubling down. She said she would go further than President Obama on illegal immigration, for example.
HANNITY: You know, it's funny because I did listen to her, and it sounds like the old Democratic playbook. It's going to be black versus white, rich versus poor, old versus young, and Republicans want to throw grandma over the cliff.
One of the things you've also taken on about Hillary is this Clinton Foundation and taking money from countries like Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Oman, Kuwait, that have atrocious records on women's rights and gay and lesbian rights. And here's what you said.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
FIORINA: It took the Associated Press to find out that Bill Clinton had apparently set up some kind of shell foundation to funnel some kind of money through. I don't know. I don't know if that was untoward or not, but it would be helpful if she or he would answer a question about it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HANNITY: What do you think about them taking money from countries that treat women so horribly? Women in Saudi Arabia can't drive. She's not critical of them. And yet they take all this money from them.
FIORINA: Yes. Well, again, it's call hypocrisy. It's one thing to go to China in 1998 and talk about women's rights in a big photo op...
HANNITY: Did they donate money to her? No, I don't think they did.
FIORINA: ... and it's another thing to actually have your actions match your words. And honestly, I think it's why so many people are tired of politics because in politics -- and Hillary Clinton is a master at this. President Obama's a master at this. It's about giving a good speech. It's about wonderful words.
But in the real word that we all live in every day, people know actions speak louder than words. People know that if your actions don't match your words, which Hillary Clinton's actions do not match her words, you're not trustworthy as a leader.
HANNITY: What do you make of Benghazi and the lie that was told -- I think the mistakes made before, not providing requested security during, stand-down orders, and then after, a made-up tale about a YouTube video that was responsible for this, and this being spontaneous.
Now, we know, in fact, they knew within minutes it was terror, and then holding back documents and her e-mails not handed over and then a server that is erased and eliminated -- what do you make of -- what kind of person would do that?
FIORINA: Yes, it's just unbelievable, isn't it? But let's back up just for a moment and say, imagine what you're thinking if you are a terrorist or an enemy of the United States, and you know that a terrorist attack has just occurred, that Americans have been murdered, and then you watch while the secretary of state and the president of the United States...
HANNITY: Lie.
FIORINA: ... lie, say, Gee, this was a videotape? What do you conclude from that? You conclude from that, Well, I guess we can go on. We're not going to get pushback.
What do you conclude when a year later, there's been a single arrest made of a videographer in LA and one other guy -- pardon me, there were two arrests -- one guy in Libya who rots in some Manhattan jail. What do you conclude? You conclude this is a nation that lacks the resolve to push back and challenge our adversaries. Never mind the incredible disrespect paid to the fallen and to the family of the fallen when Hillary Clinton stands over their caskets and sort of continues this fiction.
HANNITY: All right, we're going to take a break. We're just getting things started. 2016 GOP presidential candidate Carly Fiorina -- we'll be here for the hour tonight.
Coming up, we'll talk about defeating ISIS, negotiating with Iran, and how do you fix American's broken foreign policy and the economy?
Also, you've been sending us questions on Facebook and Twitter. We're going to ask Carly Fiorina some of those questions later in the program. Please stay with us.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
FIORINA: We can rebuild an alliance to fight ISIS, but we have to lead and we have to give our allies what they are asking us to do. We do not have to march off to war, but we have to help our allies fight a war which we need them to win.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(NEWSBREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
FIORINA: ISIS, what about ISIS? Again, the president always presents us with a false choice. You agree with me, or you go off to war. The truth is, we have a whole set of allies in the Middle East who know that ISIS is their fight, but they have asked us for very specific things to help them in that fight, and we have not provided them.
We can rebuild an alliance to fight ISIS, but we have to lead and we have to give our allies what they are asking us to do. We do not have to march off to war, but we have to help our allies fight a war which we need them to win.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HANNITY: Back with us for the hour is 2016 GOP presidential candidate Carly Fiorina.
All right, so you have a business background. You don't have a foreign policy background, so to speak. What do you say to somebody that says, All right, to be the next commander-in-chief, you need that experience?
FIORINA: Well, I've met more world leaders on the stage today than anyone running, with the possible exception of Hillary Clinton -- only I haven't done photo ops. I've had substantive private conversations. I have sat closer than you are to me right now to Vladimir Putin, to Bibi Netanyahu, to the leadership of China, of Saudi Arabia, of the United Arab Emirates, Africa, Latin America, Europe.
So I have a lot of experience. I also chaired the advisory board of the Central Intelligence Agency. I've advised two secretaries of defense, a secretary of homeland security, a secretary of state.
I am not a neophyte. And having lived and worked and traveled and done business and charity and policy work all around the world, I know how vital it is that our allies believe we will stand with them and our adversaries must believe we will confront them.
HANNITY: When you look at Iraq and cities that we had won during the surge -- Mosul, Fallujah, Tikrit, Ramadi -- and nearly lost (ph) 5,000 Americans now in the hands of ISIS, and you see that ISIS is growing in Africa, all throughout the Middle East, and the president says he still doesn't have a plan, what would your plan be to stop this growing cancer of evil? Because that's really what it is.
FIORINA: The first thing I would do is have a Camp David summit with our Arab allies, not to talk them into a very bad deal with Iran, but to say to them instead, What do you need from us? Now, we already know a lot of what they need from us. The Kurds need us to arm them. They have been asking for that for three years.
HANNITY: And they've been fighting the good fight.
FIORINA: That's right. They're probably the most effective fighting force there. For three years, the Obama administration has been saying, We can't arm them because we have to go through the central government in Baghdad. The truth is, there is no central government in Baghdad now. There is a Shia government that is in collaboration with Iran. So we need to arm the Kurds.
King Abdullah of Jordan, a man I've known a very long time, when that Jordanian pilot was burned alive, he was here in this nation. He was here because he was asking us to provide him with bombs and materiel. We still have not provided it.
The president of Egypt...
HANNITY: Al Sisi.
FIORINA: ... who was very brave and gone into Cairo and spoken to the imams and said, There's a cancer in the heart of Islam which you must help root out -- he has asked us to share intelligence. We have not done so. The Saudis are asking us for help. The Emiratis are.
So let us have a Camp David summit. Let us come together with our allies. They know this is their fight. ISIS a huge threat to them. Yes, we need a more effective air campaign. Yes, we probably need more special ops...
HANNITY: Are you saying...
(CROSSTALK)
HANNITY: ... that maybe we would be the provider of arms and materials and they would do the fighting?
FIORINA: I think that is at least a huge...
HANNITY: Part of it?
FIORINA: Part of it. I think we have intelligence we need to be sharing. I think we need to provide -- we need to make it hard for ISIS, as well as Iran, to move money around the global financial system. We have a huge amount of influence...
HANNITY: You know...
(CROSSTALK)
HANNITY: ... Republican's been asked, Knowing what we know now, should we have gone into Iraq? I think knowing what we know now, should Obama have pulled out as early as he did, and should he have kept intelligence forces and training forces on the ground? Would that have prevented ISIS's takeover of these cities?
FIORINA: Well, of course, that is the question. And what's also the question is, and no one's been able to ask it of Hillary Clinton, but they ought to be asking President Obama -- President Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton declared victory in Iraq in 2011. They said it was a sovereign, freely elected nation at peace, able to defend itself. They declared victory.
Clearly, we have no victory in Iraq anymore. And that degradation over -- from 2011 to 2015 is directly a result of our precipitous withdrawal. I think we mismanaged going in, but we clearly mismanaged going out.
Our allies, however, again, they're asking us for specific things.
HANNITY: Begging!
FIORINA: They're asking us for leadership and support. We have not provided it. So what does that say? It is yet another example of allies all over the world saying, You know what? We can't count on the U.S.
And it is why, honestly, on day one in the Oval Office, I would make two phone calls, important in and of themselves, but important symbolically, as well. Phone call number one to Bibi Netanyahu, a man I've known a long time, to say, We will stand with the state of Israel.
But guess what? Every other ally, including our Arab allies, has watched how we have treated Israel, and when we treat Israel as badly as we have, they conclude their friendship with us means nothing.
And the second phone call I would make is to the supreme leader to Iran. He might not take my phone call. He would get the message. And the message is, New deal. And here's the deal. Until you open every nuclear facility, every uranium enrichment facility to anytime, anywhere inspections, we will make it almost impossible for you to move money around the global financial system.
We can do that. We can cut off their access to a lot of systems. We haven't done it. Again, our adversaries...
HANNITY: Would you add...
FIORINA: ... everywhere would say, Huh, maybe the United States now is willing to confront its adversaries.
HANNITY: Would you add to that that when they said the destruction of Israel is non-negotiable that that's got to be taken off the table? Would you add to that, stop chanting "Death to America" and stop being the world's leader of state-sponsored terrorism as a condition?
FIORINA: Iran is never going to agree to a nuclear deal unless there is consistent, concerted pressure, which this administration is unwilling, apparently, to exert.
HANNITY: Let me ask you about Vladimir Putin and Ukraine and Crimea. Obviously, he wants -- he -- he's -- he's grown in influence in terms of his territorial ambitions. And so have the Chinese.
FIORINA: Yes.
HANNITY: There's been no penalty for hacking into our government systems.
FIORINA: Nope.
HANNITY: How would you handle those two situations?
FIORINA: So Russia -- having sat across the table from Vladimir Putin, it's pretty clear when you meet him that he has an almost limitless ambition for power. And he's been very good at acquiring it -- political power, economic power, military power, territorial power. Anyone who's spent any time with him could figure out a gimmicky red reset button isn't going to work.
I actually wouldn't speak to Vladimir Putin. I would act instead, and I would do four things immediately. I would start rebuilding the Sixth Fleet. I would start rebuilding the missile defense program. I would begin conducting very aggressive military exercises in the Baltic states, and I would arm the Ukrainians. Vladimir Putin...
(CROSSTALK)
HANNITY: When you said the strategic defense, did you mean Poland and...
FIORINA: Yes. Absolutely. Absolutely. Which, why would Obama unilaterally and inexplicably just shut that down?
HANNITY: Made no sense.
FIORINA: We don't need to be talking to Vladimir Putin right now. We need to be...
(CROSSTALK)
HANNITY: ... four things immediately.
FIORINA: Absolutely. Immediately. And I think Vladimir Putin would start to come around. The other thing I would do is allow us to become -- we can, we should, we must become the energy powerhouse of the 21st century. And when we become the energy powerhouse of the 21st century, bad actors like Vladimir Putin have less leverage undoubtedly.
China, meanwhile, has gone from a sometimes competitor, sometimes...
HANNITY: Ally.
FIORINA: ... ally to an adversary. It's clear they have. Once again, our allies are asking us for some very specific things, very specific technologies to be helpful to us in that region. We should be giving them to them. We should be conducting more aggressive exercises.
I was encouraged to hear Defense Secretary Ash Carter's comments, but the most important leverage we have over China is something we never use.
HANNITY: Money.
FIORINA: The most important leverage we have is how fast they grow their economy. The Chinese have made a deal with their people, and the deal is this. We will grow this economy and lift millions of you out of poverty, and in return, you will accept a repressive totalitarian regime, corruption, lack of safety standards, pollution, all the rest.
They have to grow their economy. We are their largest market. Our companies provide them with a lot of what they need to grow that economy, and we have never used that leverage. They don't think us talking about currency manipulation is valid. They think we're manipulating our own currency...
HANNITY: There's got to be a penalty, you would agree, for hacking into our government...
FIORINA: Absolutely. And by the way, just to finish this thought -- I'll come back to the hacking for a moment. If we, for example, were to say to China, You're going to have to play by the same rules in our country that you force us to play by in your country, we wouldn't have permitted, for example, Alibaba to take advantage of our capital markets to launch their IPO. Just -- hey, let's just play by the rules you want us to play by, which strictly speaking, we are entitled to do under the WTO. And they have not...
HANNITY: There's no reciprocity.
FIORINA: No, they're not living by the agreements they make, particularly when it comes to the theft of intellectual property.
HANNITY: Yes, it's interesting because to sell a GM car there is next to impossible.
FIORINA: That's right.
HANNITY: Great points.
And coming up, Carly Fiorina has plenty of experience in the private sector. We'll ask Carly Fiorina how she plans to create jobs, turn around this economy. That's next.
And later, it'll be your turn to get in on the action. We're going to ask Carly Fiorina some of the questions you've been sending us via social media as "Hannity" continues.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
FIORINA: It's the small and family-owned businesses that create two thirds of the new jobs in this country, that employ half the people. And so when we crush them -- and we are crushing them -- we crush possibilities for all kinds of Americans in all kinds of (INAUDIBLE)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
FIORINA: For the first time in U.S. history, we are destroying more businesses than we are creating. And what are the businesses that are getting destroyed? It's not the big -- it ain't Hewlett-Packard. It isn't Goldman Sachs. It's not Google. It's the family-owned businesses, the small businesses. It's the nine-person real estate firm that I started out in. It's the family-owned auto body shops.
It's the small and family-owned businesses that create two thirds of the new jobs in this country. They employ half the people. And so when we crush them -- and we are crushing them -- we crush possibilities for all kinds of Americans in all kinds of communities (ph).
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HANNITY: Back with us for the hour, 2016 GOP presidential candidate Carly Fiorina.
You know, I look at the amount of suffering that's going into -- that is going around in this country. If you become president, here's the economy you will inherent -- $20 trillion in debt, $100 trillion in unfunded liabilities. You will inherit 93 million Americans out of the workforce, 50 million Americans in poverty, 46 million Americans on food stamps that have been there for 40 months or longer!
How do you begin to solve such an enormous problem like that economically?
FIORINA: And this president, of course, declares victory. Amazing. So here's the good news about this. The only way to get our debts and deficits under control is to grow the economy, cut spending. Grow the economy, cut spending. Grow the economy, cut spending until...
(CROSSTALK)
HANNITY: I agree with you.
FIORINA: (INAUDIBLE)
HANNITY: OK.
FIORINA: But there are two sides of the same coin. If we cut spending in the right way, we will help grow the economy. So I believe we need to do three things.
One, we have to disentangle people's lives from these webs of dependence. If you look at the programs that we have put in place ever since the War on Poverty, those programs provide all of the wrong incentives. If you're a single mom with a couple of kids on food stamps, none of those programs incent you to move forward in your life. In fact, if you try to move forward in your life, if try to work more, if you try to earn more, you start losing benefits. In other words, the risks feel too high to you.
So we have to disentangle those webs of dependence. We have to make sure that every single child gets a good quality education, which means we actually have to provide parents with choices. The left wing is totally on the wrong side of this education issue. And no, Common Core and increasing spending in the Department of Education isn't going to solve that problem. What's going to solve that problem is choices for parents and accountability for teachers.
HANNITY: Let me go to your two points, because I agree with you. There are only two ways to do it. When you talk about cutting spending, most politicians -- Washington works in funny ways.
FIORINA: It doesn't work.
HANNITY: It doesn't work, exactly. Baseline budgeting, built-in increases in every government program, and then if you reduce the increase from eight percent to five percent, they call it a cut. That's not a cut.
FIORINA: No, it's not.
HANNITY: That's an increase.
FIORINA: That's right.
HANNITY: Are you talking about real cuts and real reductions in the size and spending of government?
FIORINA: Yes. Three things we have to do to actually reduce spending. Number one, when tens of thousands of baby boomers retire out of the federal government, we cannot replace a single one, and that's what's going to happen over the next five or six years. Number two, we need revenue --
HANNITY: So through attrition --
FIORINA: Yes. We need revenue-reducing tax reform, not revenue- neutral tax reform. All these tax reform plans --
HANNITY: So the government will take in less money?
FIORINA: Yes, less money, less money.
And number three, we need to go to real zero-based budgeting, meaning every program has to be justified in every agency every year down to the last cent, because you're absolutely right. You know what appropriations hearings are about? The rate of increase over last year. And that's how drifting along we have increased the size and scope and cost and complexity and ineptitude, frankly, of every single government agency for 45 years.
HANNITY: It's amazing Republicans have gone along with the scheme, in my view.
The penny plan, which I support, I support it, one, because it works, and, two, because you can explain it in a sentence. You cut one penny out of every dollar the government spends every year for six years, you balance the budget.
FIORINA: You know what, Sean, there are so many good ideas, that being one of them. But here's what every single one of those good ideas take -- leadership that is unafraid to challenge the status quo. And what happens is you get a lot of politicians who are being benefited by the status quo. And so guess what, they don't challenge the status quo. It is why now we need a leader in the Oval Office who will challenge the status quo of Washington, D.C.
HANNITY: So if you cut the spending into the government, and also you're talking about tax reform, reducing the amount of spending, real spending and real dollars.
FIORINA: That's right.
HANNITY: OK. Now we still have all those people out of the labor force.
FIORINA: That's right.
HANNITY: We still have those people in poverty and we still those people on food stamps. And we still have debt to pay down. How do you then get those people back to work?
FIORINA: The most important thing that we need to do to grow this economy is to get the real engine of economic growth in this nation going and growing again. And guess what that is -- small and family-owned and new businesses. Small, family-owned, new businesses have always created two-thirds of the jobs in this country, they employ half the people. I started out as a secretary in a nine-person real estate firm. My husband, Frank, started out as a tow-truck driver.
HANNITY: I was a dishwasher.
FIORINA: You were a dishwasher. The point is, it's how most Americans get their start. And what we're doing now is we're destroying more of those businesses than we're creating. This big, bloated, complicated government that has been created over decades by a political class, guess what, only the big, the powerful, the wealthy, and the well- connected can deal with that big government. It's called crony capitalism. And the only way to reduce crony capitalism is to simplify and reduce the impact and the spending --
HANNITY: You talk about simplifying the tax code. Do you prefer a flat tax, a fair tax? Do you have a preference?
FIORINA: I prefer a tax code that's three pages long, not 70,000 pages long. I prefer a tax code that anybody can understand and can fill out without having to hire an accountant or a lawyer to do so.
HANNITY: I can't tell you how refreshing that would be.
All right, we'll take a break. We'll have more with Carly Fiorina right after the break. Plus we'll ask her some of your questions that you have been sending via Facebook and Twitter straight ahead.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
FIORINA: She tweets about women's rights in this country and takes money from governments that deny women the most basic human rights.
(APPLAUSE)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
FIORINA: Like Mrs. Clinton, I, too, have traveled the globe. But unlike her I've actually accomplished something.
(APPLAUSE)
FIORINA: Flying isn't an accomplishment. It is an activity.
Nor is it leadership when Secretary Clinton asks, what difference does it make when our embassy is deliberately attacked?
She tweets about women's rights in this country and takes money from governments that deny women the most basic human rights.
We have to have a nominee on our side with the courage and the conviction to take the fight to her every time.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HANNITY: That was a political ad from Carly Fiorina's campaign taking a little shot at Hillary Clinton. And she joins us for the full hour tonight.
Let's go through some of the social issues. You are prolife, and you said you've taken a lot of heat for that.
FIORINA: Well, I've been called offensive as a candidate by the left wing. But here's the interesting thing. When I ran for the Senate in California, I lost that general election, of course, against Barbara Boxer in a deep blue state. But running as a prolife conservative, I won more Republican votes, more Democratic votes, and more independent votes than virtually anyone running anywhere in the nation in 2010. That's how big California is.
Why do I bring it up? Because we don't have to run away from our principles to bring others to our party. We need to be authentic about our values,. But I think the way we talk about our principles and our values - -
HANNITY: Matters.
FIORINA: It matters. We need to be empathetic, not judgmental. We need to be optimistic, not vitriolic. I think it matters. People are prepared to disagree, but not if they're disrespected.
HANNITY: All right, so where do you stand on gay marriage?
FIORINA: You know, I have always said government shouldn't discriminate. And so I have been in favor of civil unions for a long time. As a CEO of Hewlett Packard I provided benefits to same-sex couples. I also defend every one of religious faith's ability and right to say life is a gift that is passed from God through a man and a woman, and therefore a marriage is between a man and a woman. And I think we have to be able as a nation --
HANNITY: Basically you take Hillary and Obama's old position, because they've flipped and flopped and flailed. I got it.
(LAUGHTER)
HANNITY: Where do you stand on concealed carry for law-abiding citizens?
FIORINA: They ought to be able to do it. My husband has a --
HANNITY: I have a permit. And I just think that law-abiding citizens have that right. You think it's constitutional?
FIORINA: Yes, I do.
HANNITY: What do you think about the experiment with Colorado and legalized marijuana?
FIORINA: Well, look, I believe in states' rights. So I think the voters of Colorado had the right to take that vote. I personally think it's a very bad idea to legalize marijuana.
HANNITY: Why?
FIORINA: Because marijuana is not the same as taking -- I'm a cancer survivor. And I remember when I had cancer, my doctor asked me if I had an interest in medicinal marijuana. I did not. And he said good, because marijuana is a very complex chemical substance now. We don't understand how it interacts with other drugs. We don't understand what it does to your body. So if we're going to treat it like a medicine, and many people are benefited by marijuana as a medicine, I'm OK with that. But then regulate it like medicine. Don't say to young people, this is just like having a beer. It's not.
HANNITY: Do you think climate change is real?
FIORINA: You know what I would say, you know what I would say, all of these scientists that tell us it's real and it's manmade, read the fine print of what those scientists say, because what they also say is a single nation acting alone will make no difference at all.
So here we have a bunch of liberals and people in the EPA who are willing to sacrifice other people's lives, other people's livelihoods at the altar of their ideology, whether it's fish over families in California or destroying coal mining communities in Kentucky and West Virginia, and we're not making any difference. The answer to this is innovation. It's always innovation, never regulation.
HANNITY: Immigration is such an important issue. What is your answer to this illegal immigration problem we have? And I only have a minute, so I'm putting you on the spot.
FIORINA: So here's where people get -- lose faith in government. We need to secure the border. How long has the border been insecure? How long have we been talking about this? Secure the border, north and south.
Second, how long is the legal immigration system been a problem, 25 years? A lot of politicians talk about it. It's not fixed. We have got 16 different visa programs. We let the wrong people in, we send the wrong people home. Fix the basics.
HANNITY: Do that first.
FIORINA: Yes.
(CROSSTALK)
HANNITY: And then you discuss the 11 million to 15 million people here illegally, after --
FIORINA: Yes, but my own view is, because people ask my view all the time, if you have come here illegally and stayed here illegally, you do not get to earn the right to citizenship.
HANNITY: All right, we've got to take a break. We'll come back. We'll have Carly Fiorina answer some of the questions you've been sending us via Facebook and Twitter straight ahead on "Hannity."
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
FIORINA: This must be a nation once again where every American, regardless of their circumstances, feels that their life is filled with possibilities. That is the nation we must be once again, because that is the nation we have been in the past.
(APPLAUSE)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HANNITY: As we continue with 2016 GOP presidential candidate Carly Fiorina, we're going to get to some of your questions in just a second here. All right, I'm going to mention names. Quick answers. Rand Paul?
FIORINA: I think he is outside the mainstream of this party, and I think we are a nation that must always face outward into the world. When we are not waiting, which doesn't mean rushing off to war, the world is a far more dangerous and tragic place.
HANNITY: Rubio, Marco Rubio?
FIORINA: I think he is a politician with a great future. I think he would make a great Veep.
HANNITY: Jeb Bush?
FIORINA: Jeb Bush is a very good man. I think that it's difficult for people to think about a Bush III.
HANNITY: Scott Walker?
FIORINA: Guy with a lot of grit, a lot of grit and a lot of heart. He has a very different experience set than I do, which is a lifetime in Wisconsin politics.
HANNITY: Ted Cruz?
FIORINA: Smart man, very smart man. And I think that being president requires unifying the country.
HANNITY: Rick Perry?
FIORINA: Rick Perry is a good friend of mine. Rick Perry got me to outsource a lot of manufacturing from California to Texas as a matter of fact.
HANNITY: He's very convincing. He was up here, he almost lived in New York stealing business from New York.
Barack Obama?
FIORINA: You know, I think he is a good father, a good husband. I think he loves this country. But honestly, I think his ideology is so foreign to what I believe this country is about. I think he has no experience in what leadership really is. And I think now we need someone in the Oval Office who understands what leading really means.
HANNITY: Hillary Clinton?
FIORINA: I think she's a hardworking, intelligent woman who has dedicated her life to public service. I think her ambition to be president far outweighs her ability to be an effective leader.
HANNITY: Let's go to Facebook. We have Henry Robert who writes as a question for Carly Fiorina, "What makes her any different than all the other candidates, and why should I vote for her?"
FIORINA: Well, everything about me is different. I'm not a professional politician, which means I can challenge the status quo in Washington. I understand how the economy actually works. I understand how the world works and who's in it. I understand how bureaucracies work. That's vital because government is one big, bloated, corrupt, inept bureaucracy. I understand technology, an incredibly important tool and also a weapon in the hands of our adversaries.
And most importantly of all, I think, I understand leadership. Its highest calling is to unlock the potential in others. We need a leader who will unlock the potential of this nation. And you cannot unlock the potential of anything without challenging the status quo.
HANNITY: Let's go to Chuck. He writes on Twitter, "Carly, as a smart, effective businesswoman, how would you deal with a dysfunctional Congress and Senate?" Good question.
FIORINA: You have to get the American people to put pressure on the political system. Our system does respond to pressure. And so I would literally go into the Oval Office, have a radio address on a regular basis, and I would ask people to take out their smartphones. And I'd say I'd like you to vote on this question. Do you think it's important that we know where every one of your dollars is being spent? Press one for yes, two for no. I know what the answer would be, but it would put pressure. Do you think we ought to be able to fire senior executives who don't do their job? Press one for yes, two for no. I know what the answer would be. But it would put pressure on the political system.
HANNITY: Last one. This is from Leo Barry on Facebook. And he writes "Two questions -- how far will you go to protect the U.S. constitution, and how will you deal with Obama's executive orders, all of his executive orders?"
FIORINA: That is actually the most important thing that a president has to do. You take an oath to defend and uphold the constitution. And one of the first things that I would do in the Oval Office is start to roll back all of these executive orders which are having an incredibly damaging effect --
HANNITY: The first week at least if not the first day?
FIORINA: Exactly.
HANNITY: All right, we're going to take a break. We'll come back. More with Carly Fiorina right after this break. Stay with us tonight on "Hannity."
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HANNITY: Welcome back to "Hannity." In this final segment we like to give the candidates 60 uninterrupted seconds to lay out their case to you our viewers about why they should be president. Carly Fiorina?
FIORINA: When I was a little girl, my mother said to me what you are is God's gift to you, what you make of yourself is your gift to God. And I have learned in my life that everyone has God-given gifts. Everyone has potential.
We now need a leader in the Oval Office that understands their highest calling is to unlock the potential of every American and of this great nation. I can win this job, and I can do this job. And to do this job now requires a leader who understands how the economy works, how the world works and who's in it, how bureaucracies work, because our government has become one giant, bloated, inept, corrupt bureaucracy that is crushing the potential of this nation, how technology works. Technology is a tool to help us and a weapon that our enemies use against us.
And most importantly of all, a leader who understands that the highest calling of leadership is to challenge the status quo and unlock the potential of this great nation.
HANNITY: Carly, great to see you for the hour. Thanks so much for joining us.
FIORINA: Thanks, Sean.
HANNITY: We really appreciate it. Thank you.
All right, that's all the time we have left. Thank you for being with us. We hope you have a great night.
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