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.”
A new report by the Foreign Correspondents Club of China warns that press freedom in the most populous country in the world is declining at an alarming speed. Cheddar News speaks with Steven Butler, Asia Program Coordinator at the Committee to Protect Journalists, about the hardships journalists face in China.
Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S.C. 1st District) joined Cheddar to discuss her cannabis legalization bill, the States Reform Act, and the prospects for gaining bipartisan support for a bill that has garnered the endorsement of e-commerce giant Amazon. This legislation is supported by businesses large and small, Amazon obviously being the most recent and largest business to support it," Mace said. "They don't want to sell pot. But what it does do is it affects their working employment pool." She stated that 10 percent of eligible new hires for Amazon are affected by restrictive marijuana laws. The representative also explained that the bill leaves equity provisions up to the states rather than mandating them on a federal level.
After a number of tragic subway incidents, the MTA is facing increased pressure to install subway platform screens to help prevent injury or death. However, according to an earlier report from the MTA, installing these prevented measures isn't feasible. New York City Council Member Keith Powers, joined Cheddar to discuss more.
Across the country, states are working to redraw their congressional lines in what is often known as gerrymandering. These news lines are expected to determine the balance of power between Democrats and Republicans within the next decade. Senior Counsel for the Brennan Center's Democracy Program, Michael Li, joined Cheddar to discuss more.
The state of California is officially planning to close its death row in the next two years. That state's governor Democrat Gavin Newsom says the plan is now to move all condemned inmates to other prisons and turn it into, as he calls it, a positive healing environment. Former U. S. Assistant Attorney and Legal Analyst, David Katz, joined Cheddar to discuss more.
Anthony Saccaro, Founder and President of Providence Financial, joins Cheddar News' Closing Bell, where he elaborates on why he is excited that the market is beginning to rebound and believes February has the potential to be a good month after a turbulent January.
Cryptocurrency is expected to become a part of our daily lives — but what sort of environmental impact does it have? As the U.S. becomes the crypto mining capital of the world, climate advocates are worried about mining companies reopening old coal plants, using massive amounts of energy, wasteful hardware, and more. Congressional Democrats led by Senator Elizabeth Warren are demanding answers from mining firms about their electricity use and waste levels. John Belizaire, CEO of Soluna Computing, joins Cheddar Climate to discuss the congressional letters, how crypto mining can become a green industry, and more.
The Supreme Court will reconsider race-based affirmative action in college admissions. The court will examine admissions policies at Harvard University and The University of North Carolina Chapel Hill, which count the race of applicants as a factor in admissions. The court has upheld affirmative action policies in the past, saying it helps to create more diverse student bodies. However, the conservative Supreme Court could be skeptical and even possibly hostile to such policies. Nick Anderson, Higher Education Writer, Washington Post joined Cheddar's Opening Bell to discuss.
