A “heartsick" and “angry" Carly Fiorina tore into President Barack Obama and former U.S. Sec. of State Hillary Clinton on international issues on Saturday.
Fiorina closed the Sunshine Summit on Saturday afternoon, the last of 14 presidential hopefuls to speak to the Republican Party of Florida’s (RPOF) event in Orlando.
The businesswoman focused on the Islamic terrorist attacks which rocked Paris on Friday.
“I am angry that just yesterday morning our president, against all evidence, declared ISIS contained and took a victory lap,” Fiorina said.
As she has throughout her presidential campaign, Fiorina took aim at former U.S. Sec. of State Hillary Clinton, the frontrunner for the Democratic nomination, hitting her handling of the Benghazi attacks and the reduction of American military forces in Iraq.
Insisting America was an exceptional country, Fiorina praised America’s role on the global stage, even as she hit Obama’s management of global affairs.
“Because we are exceptional, we must lead,” Fiorina said.
“We must have the strongest economy and the strongest military on the face of the planet,” she added, vowing to “invest in the military” and restore economic prosperity by embracing free market solutions.
While she did not call out primary rival businessman Donald Trump by name, Fiorina called his claim that he knew more about ISIS than America’s generals “deeply misguided.” Fiorina also slammed Obama and Clinton for ranking climate change “as our most pressing national security challenge.” Instead, Fiorina pointed to radical Islamic terrorism as the biggest threat to America and called for the destruction of ISIS.
“We must wage this war and we must win,” Fiorina said though she added she was opposed to “nation building” and policies used in Iraq and Afghanistan in the last decade.
Fiorina said, if elected, she would push a “new deal” with Iran and scrap Obama’s deal with Iran over its nuclear program. She also pledged to support Israel in the White House.
“The United States will stand with Israel, always,” Fiorina said to cheers.
Showcasing her background in business, Fiorina noted she had a strong background in national security and would call out Islamic terrorism as “evil.”
Fiorina urged Republicans to nominate someone who will lead the world and defend against the dangers of jihadist terrorism.
Starting off as one of the dark horses in the field, Fiorina broke through in the first undercard debate and has generally done well in subsequent debates with the top tier candidates. Fiorina called Russia and Iran medium term threats but insisted China was a long term threat.
Reach Kevin Derby at kderby@sunshinestatenews.com or follow him on Twitter: @KevinDerbySSN
