Carly Fiorina, the former CEO of Hewlett-Packard, offered a biting critique of Hillary Clinton’s time as secretary of state, drawing cheers from the crowd of conservatives gathered at Saturday’s Iowa Freedom Summit in Des Moines.
“Like Hillary Clinton I, too, have traveled hundreds of thousands of miles around the globe, but unlike her, I have actually accomplished something,” Fiorina said, setting of whoops, cheers and applause from the crowd.
Fiorina touted her own resume in contrast to Clinton’s, telling the crowd she had “done business in over 80 countries” and had served “for several years” as chair of the Central Intelligence Agency’s external advisory board. Fiorina dismissed the Obama administration’s approach to Russia as “gimmicky” and she blasted the way President Obama and Clinton handled security at the diplomatic post in Benghazi, Libya.
“And unlike Hillary Clinton I know what difference it makes that our American ambassador and three other brave Americans were killed in a deliberate terrorist attack on the anniversary of 9/11 in Libya,” Fiorina said, to applause. “And apparently unlike Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama I know our response must be more forceful than the arrest a single individual one year later.”
The crowd rose to its feet, whistling and cheering.
AUDIO of Fiorina’s speech
Fiorina, who has said she may run for president in 2016, unsuccessfully ran against long-time California Senator Barbara Boxer in 2010. Fiorina formed a political action committee in 2014 and supported conservative female candidates around the country, including Iowa’s Joni Ernst.
Sarah Palin, the former Alaska governor who campaigned for Ernst last fall as well, was also a speaker at Saturday’s Iowa Freedom Summit. Palin, who spoke longer than any other featured guest at the event, urged Republicans to “go on offense” against Hillary Clinton now.
“Knowing what the media will do throughout 2016 to all of us, it’s going to take ‘more than a village’ to beat Hillary,” Palin said, and as the crowd applauded, some women in the audience started chanting: “Sarah! Sarah!”