Carly Fiorina on 'Your World'

Carly Fiorina on 'Your World'

Monday, June 21, 2010

This is a rush transcript from "Your World With Neil Cavuto," June 18, 2010. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.

NEIL CAVUTO, ANCHOR: All right, you might have heard the official telling Fox that the Justice Department will indeed move forward with a lawsuit against Arizona’s tough new crackdown on illegal immigrants. It’s building its case, we’re told.

Reaction now from California’s senatorial candidate Carly Fiorina.

By the way, we did invite Senator Barbara Boxer, her challenger in the fall. And we did not hear back.

Carly, good to have you. Thanks for coming.

CARLY FIORINA, R-CALIF. SENATORIAL CANDIDATE: Thanks. Nice to be with you, Neil.

CAVUTO: What do you make of this, that the administration sort of is upping the ante on Arizona? What do you make of that?

FIORINA: Well, at the very least, it’s misplaced priorities.

Barbara Boxer immediately challenges the constitutionality of that law. Now we have the Justice Department going to file suit. Why doesn’t the federal government focus on doing its job and securing the border? I simply don’t understand it.

CAVUTO: Maybe because they think this suit is an earlier issue than ever getting around to the border.

FIORINA: Yes. Well, it certainly I guess is easier to file papers, I guess, in this administration than it is to actually put the technology and the resources necessary to secure that border.

But, in fact, the federal government isn’t doing its job, continues not to do its job on the border. And so the people of Arizona, the majority of whom support this law, are left in a terrible position.

CAVUTO: Carly, are you and Meg Whitman at slight odds on this issue? I know she’s running for governor. You are running for Senate, she of course not a big fan of this law, but not a fan of the way it’s being implemented and handled, the way — in other words, the way they’re cracking down there, you a little less so. So, is there a little division in the ranks there in California?

FIORINA: Well, you will have to ask Meg Whitman what her views are on this law. We haven’t had detailed conversations about it.

CAVUTO: I did. She doesn’t like it. She doesn’t like it.

(CROSSTALK)

FIORINA: Well, I think all of us regret that this law is necessary.

But this law is necessary because the federal government isn’t doing its job and the people of Arizona are in danger. And I think we are jumping to conclusions that the law enforcement personnel in Arizona are unable to uphold this law in an appropriate fashion.

I have read this law. And this law is very clear. It is — prohibits racial profiling. It prohibits the random stopping of people and asking for their paperwork. And I’m quite sure that the people of Arizona wish they were in a less difficult position than they’re in, but they’re in this position because the federal government isn’t doing its job, and we have criminals coming across the border.

CAVUTO: Do you think that — that maybe this suit is a distraction from the whole BP mess? You have been very critical of this president’s handling of that.

(CROSSTALK)

FIORINA: Well, you know, I — again, even in the context of BP, I wonder about this government’s priorities. The federal government’s top priority right now should be the cleanup. And BP certainly has done so many things wrong. They need to be held to account.

And I think it’s a good thing that a $20 billion fund has been set up and that an independent person is going to administer the release of those funds.

CAVUTO: You don’t think that fund was strong-armed? There are a lot of people who say it made them uncomfortable, that aspect.

(CROSSTALK)

FIORINA: Well, I think it was in BP’s interests to step forward with a very sizable fund. But here’s what I would say...

CAVUTO: Yes, because you might have heard Ben Stein. He’s very worried about the precedent he keeps establishing here.

FIORINA: Well, I think Ben Stein is right.

But I guess what I’m surprised by is, here’s a president who is willing to strong-arm the state of California — of Arizona, who is willing to strong-arm BP, but apparently isn’t willing to strong-arm his own federal government to get this cleanup moving more effectively.

He isn’t, apparently, prepared to strong-arm 26 different agencies that are not coordinated down there, and tell them to get coordinated and to help with the cleanup.

(CROSSTALK)

CAVUTO: But he’s using it, Carly — I’m sorry — but he is using it to push a climate bill and cap and trade and all of that. What do you think of that?

FIORINA: It’s terrible.

I mean, this is the most cynical kind of political calculation, that, in the midst of this tragedy, a terrible tragedy, that President Obama and Barbara Boxer would step forward and say what we need to do is push forward a cap and trade.

Even Dianne Feinstein, the senior senator from California, said what every commonsense person knows. Legislation will not clean up the Gulf. We need to focus on cleaning up the Gulf.

CAVUTO: Jerry Brown has a — a unique view of business titans such as yourself — former titans — running for office. Now, even though he is taking on Meg Whitman, the former eBay chief, and you of course taking on Barbara Boxer for Senate, he doesn’t think much of business muckety-mucks running for office.

This is what he told me on primary night not too long ago.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JERRY BROWN, D-CALIF. GUBERNATORIAL CANDIDATE: This is business. Do you hire somebody who has never spent one day, barely voted and now says, hey, I woke up one morning, I have got this money, I think I will be governor?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAVUTO: What do you think of that?

FIORINA: Well, first, how would Jerry Brown know what the lessons from business are to government? Because he’s been in politics all his life, as has Barbara Boxer.

But ours was intended to be a citizen government. It is what of, by and for the people means. And when our most important issue in California is the creation of jobs, I think it’s quite helpful to have someone in the U.S. Senate or in the governor’s seat who actually knows where jobs come from.

When our most important issue is the debt that we’re piling on our children and grandchildren, I think it’s pretty helpful to have someone in the U.S. Senate who has actually managed billions of dollars and knows how to cut billions of dollars. So, I disagree with Jerry Brown.

(LAUGHTER)

CAVUTO: Well, I wasn’t too surprised by that.

But, Carly, it’s always good seeing you. Thank you very much.

FIORINA: Great to see you.

CAVUTO: And, Barbara Boxer, that invite always stands for you. You can decline or not, but we always invite.

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