2016 GOP Presidential hopeful Carly Fiorina responded to Friday’s ISIS terror attacks in Paris with strong words for President Obama and Hillary Clinton.
“I am outraged because the murder, mayhem, danger and tragedy we see unfolding in Paris, throughout the Middle East and too often in our own homeland, are the direct consequence of this administration’s policies. You cannot lead from behind,” Fiorina said.
Here is her full statement:
“Like all of you, I am angry.
I am heartsick and heartbroken at the carnage in Paris.
I am filled with revulsion for the terrorists who carried out these brutal attacks and the murderous Islamist extremism that fuels their violent hatred.
I am profoundly disappointed that our own President cannot bring himself to speak with the same clarity of purpose as do President Hollande and Prime Minister Cameron.
Mostly though, I am angry.
Angry that just yesterday morning, hours before the Paris attacks began and against all the evidence, President Obama declared ISIS “contained” and took a victory lap. They are not a JV team, Mr. President. They are not contained. They are at our shores and their measure of victory is the body count.
I am angry that Hillary Clinton dares to ask “what difference does it make” how four Americans died in Benghazi. And then she tells us that we must empathize with our enemies. Mrs. Clinton, when the United States does not answer a purposeful terrorist attack on our embassy with a purposeful and powerful response, but instead blames a video, you invite more terrorism and bloodshed.
I am angry that Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton declared victory in Iraq in 2011, abandoned all our hard-won gains for political expediency and contrary to the advice of our generals, thus leaving vast swaths of territory and too much weaponry to be gobbled up by ISIS.
I am angry that President Obama unilaterally decides that we’ll accept refugees while his administration admits we cannot determine their ties to terrorism.
Mostly I am outraged because the murder, mayhem, danger and tragedy we see unfolding in Paris, throughout the Middle East and too often in our own homeland, are the direct consequence of this administration’s policies. You cannot lead from behind.
The world is a tragic and dangerous place when we do not lead. We cannot be the world’s policeman, but we must be the world’s leader. And so let us consider why only America can lead the world.
Our nation was founded on a unique premise: that each individual life has value, that we judge an individual by the content of their character, as Martin Luther King said, not by the group to which they belong. Our nation was founded on the idea that each of us has the right to fulfill our potential – life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness – and our Founders said this right comes from God and should not be taken away by government.
Our Constitution was written as much to curb the abuse of power by government as it was to protect individual rights.
We are not a perfect nation and we have worked hard to become a more perfect union. But we are an exceptional nation. And it is nevertheless true that more things have been more possible for more people regardless of their circumstances here, than anywhere else on earth. And it is also true that we are the only nation in the history of the world that possesses military superiority and yet uses that power not to conquer territory or to subjugate others, but to liberate, uplift and comfort people around the world.
This, Mr. President, is why we are an exceptional nation. And because we are exceptional, we must lead.”
