With less than a month to go before the presidential election, former Hewlett-Packard CEO and 2016 GOP presidential candidate Carly Fiorina, is among the growing list of Republicans backing the Biden-Harris ticket.
‘[Joe Biden] is the only one who’s prepared to actually reach his hand across the aisle, sit down, listen to people who don’t agree with him, and work together to solve problems,” Fiorina told Cheddar’s Closing Bell. “That’s what our nation needs now.”
Fiorina first announced her support for Joe Biden in June. She told Cheddar it was the end of 2019 when she realized she could not support President Donald Trump’s re-election campaign. “As a businessperson, I judge someone on the results they produce, their leadership, and their behavior,” Fiorina said. “I think he has honestly failed most leadership tests that have come his way.”
When it comes to the 2020 election, Fiorina says it’s more than just various issues at stake; she called it a matter of the nation’s unity. “This country has got to come back together otherwise we cannot move forward.”
Unsurprisingly, Fiorina said she doesn’t agree with everything on the Democratic platform. She also admitted she doesn’t agree with some policies “the Trump Republican Party” has pushed. Specifically, Fiorina pointed to the administration’s handling of immigration and what she described as the growing consolidation of power in the executive branch. As a businessperson, she also pointed to the country’s growing debt and deficit and Trump’s foreign policy record.
When it comes to foreign policy, relations with China are top of Fiorina’s mind. It’s one point she agrees with the president on. “I think it was right for Donald Trump to say we are going to have to challenge China.” But she did have criticisms for the way the Trump administration went about negotiating with the superpower. “If we're going to be successful in challenging China, we need to be consistent, persistent, and strategic,” Fiorina said. “Donald Trump has been extremely inconsistent.”
Fiorina highlighted China’s increased aggression in the South China Sea, its actions against Taiwan, and continued theft of U.S. intellectual property. She said the only way forward is for the government and businesses to find a way to work together. “Which we’re not doing right now,” she added.
As a former tech CEO, Fiorina knows about the power the tech industry has in the marketplace and with consumers — and the response Washington has to that kind of largely-unregulated power. She stated that the pandemic’s acceleration of trends around the tech sector's influence is concerning lawmakers from both sides of the aisle. “Big tech is not going to have an open field going forward, in my view, no matter who wins the White House.”
Florida lawmakers have introduced a controversial bill restricting some discussion of sexual orientation and gender identity in classrooms with young students. Supporters say the move empowers parents to have more of a say in what their children learn. Florida State Senator Shevrin Jones joins Cheddar News to discuss more.
Congress this week passed a bill that would end forced arbitration for workplace sexual assault and harassment, one of the most significant changes to employment law in years. Cheddar News speaks with Marjorie Mesidor, Sexual Harassment Attorney, who explains that arbitrators are often retired judges or attorneys who "tends to have a more conservative view both to law and rewards."
As the situation with Russia has grown more precarious, the White House urged Americans remaining in Ukraine to leave immediately. The Biden administration that it sees continuing signs of escalation but did not have specific information detailing a timetable for a potential invasion. Kristine Berzina, senior fellow and head of the geopolitics team at the Alliance for Securing Democracy, joined Cheddar News to provide her analysis. "There's talk of an impending phone call between President Putin, President Biden," Berzina said. "That is certainly a good sign to indicate that there would be significant cost."
Terrell Starr, host of 'Black Diplomats' podcast and senior nonresident fellow at the Eurasia Center for Atlantic Council, joins Cheddar News from Kyiv, Ukraine to discuss the mounting tension there.
The White House laid out plans for a $5 billion investment into a national network of charging stations to ease EV driving anxiety. Bruce Brimacombe, CEO of EV infrastructure GOe3 joined Cheddar News to discuss how much needs to be done for drivers to get over the fear of running out of energy. "People need to be able to do what they're doing now," he said. "But that is the way that if you're going to buy an electric car, you got to feel like you're not changing your world." Brimacombe noted that building out the infrastructure between cities was GOe3's own focus.
U.S. automakers are saying that the blockade of the Ambassador Bridge, a crucial border crossing between the U.S. and Canada, is affecting their production lines. Michelle Krebs of Cox Automotive warns that the disruption "couldn't come at a worst time," amid chip and labor shortages in Detroit.
AND DETROIT-BASED AUTO MAKERS SAY THEY ARE SHUTTING DOWN PLANTS OR SCALING BACK PRODUCTION BECAUSE OF PARTS SHORTAGES.
Plans to add affordable housing to a development in Yellow Springs, Ohio, were squashed after comedian Dave Chappelle and other community members spoke out against the project. Chappelle threatened to pull the plug on his local comedy club and restaurant projects if the development had been approved.
David Tafuri, Former Obama Campaign Foreign Policy Advisor & Former State Department Official, joined Cheddar News to break down the latest geopolitical stories from Beijing, amid China's human rights abuses against Uyghur Muslims and yet another Russian doping scandal.
Dr. Jennifer Haythe of Columbia University's Irving Medical Center, joined Wake Up With Cheddar to discuss the latest with the pandemic, as the debate over child safety rages amid low vaccination rates and states easing school mask mandates.
