Carly Fiorina Says What We Should All Be Thinking About President Trump

Carly Fiorina, sitting in the audience, stands as she receives acknowledgement from Vice President-elect Mike Pence acknowledges as he addresses the Heritage Foundation's 2016 President's Club Meeting in Washington, Tuesday, Dec. 6, 2016. (AP Photo/Cliff Owen)

Former Republican presidential candidate Carly Fiorina is known for speaking her mind. On the campaign trail, in front of the media, and in the company of her fellow candidates (all of whom were male), she didn’t back down from stating the difficult or the obvious.

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One of my favorite moments of the seemingly never-ending campaign season was during the September 2015 debate at the Reagan Presidential Library. Fiorina looked into the camera and passionately expressed her pro-life views and disgust at what had been revealed in recently released undercover Planned Parenthood videos. It was a powerful moment.

At the same debate, then-candidate Trump offered a sort of apology to Fiorina for saying of her previously, “Look at that face! Would anyone vote for that?” In an exchange between the two on the debate stage, Trump said, “I think she’s got a beautiful face and I think she’s a beautiful woman.”

Not much has changed since candidate Trump became President Trump. He still spouts off when he shouldn’t (too often on social media), and is a distracting embarrassment. As I’ve said before, the office of the president has devolved in decorum over the years. The 45th president is not helping.

In a recent appearance on a Politico podcast, Fiorina again stated the obvious, this time about Trump and his penchant for Twitter antics.

…the former Hewlett-Packard executive-turned-U.S. presidential candidate – called the president’s musings on Twitter both “insulting” and “distracting.”

And she expressed little confidence that Trump will pull back.

“I don’t think he will stop tweeting, unfortunately,” she told POLITICO editor Carrie Budoff Brown, “but I think it’s very destructive.”

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She also commented on the aforementioned exchange between the two at the 2015 debate.

Fiorina recalls facing off against Trump on the debate stage after he made derogatory comments about her appearance.

“Maybe because I have been in a man’s world for so long, it wasn’t particularly surprising to me,” she says of Trump’s comments. And when it came to responding to then-candidate Trump during a Republican primary debate, Fiorina remembers that “what made me feel good was the audience applauded.”

It’s clear that far too many people view Trump’s tweeting as “telling it like it is,” and more refreshing than nauseating. This is not surprising given that style won out over substance during the primaries and beyond.

Fiorina is right to criticize the president’s use of social media. It does nothing for the office in general, nor does it add any sort of credence to an administration sorely lacking just that. Knee-jerk reactions from the president’s personal Twitter account are not some positive experiment in connecting with the American people.

Caleb Howe argued just that in his piece President Trump’s Radioactive Twitter Proves Why He Needs Republican Critics.

Trump’s Twitter is dangerous. It’s reckless. And he can’t make it go away by accusing the press of being “obsessed” with his Twitter. The world is obsessed with it. Diplomats are. World leaders are.

If you can’t criticize him for this, if you can’t say “enough, shut up and work, think before you speak” then you aren’t helping the Republican cause or fighting “fascism” or whatever other noble cause you’ve given yourself credit for spearheading.

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I may be among the minority, but I’d rather have a president be boring, but principled and focused, than an entertaining, volatile commander-in-chief who sends tweets out in some sort of middle school-type internet war with the media.

Seriously. Enough already, President Trump.

Midterms will be here before you know it, but legislatively, things seem to be on pause. That wall? It’s a horrible idea, but it was a huge campaign promise. Health care? GOP Senators aren’t very hopeful than anything will come of it in 2017. Your trip abroad was a great, if unsuccessful chance, at improving optics. Some have speculated that your tweets could even hurt your travel ban case. Former FBI Director Comey is set to testify before the Senate Intelligence Committee on Thursday. And investigations into possible ties with Russia/influence in 2016 election are ongoing.

Set down your phone. There is real work to be done.

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