Donald Trump Says Carly Fiorina ‘Not Going To Do The Trick’ As VP Pick For Ted Cruz
Ahead of a “major announcement” by Ted Cruz scheduled for Wednesday afternoon, Republican front-runner Donald Trump addressed rumors that the Texas senator will tap a familiar name for his running mate. Over the course of recent weeks, rumors have swirled that the Cruz camp has considered inviting former GOP candidate Carly Fiorina as a possible pick for vice president. Although running mates are typically chosen after a candidate has locked up the party’s nomination, hardly anything about the present election cycle lends itself to precedent or tradition these days.
In an interview on ABC’s Good Morning America, Donald Trump panned Carly Fiorina as a vice presidential candidate, suggesting that her presence on the ticket would not do any favors for Ted Cruz’s struggling campaign. Indeed, Ted Cruz is struggling to keep up with Donald Trump’s momentum, as evidenced by Trump’s clean sweep of states in the so-called “Super Tuesday IV” primaries on April 26, but the candidate continues to draw up plans for a contested convention in the summer.
“I think it would be a bad choice,” Trump said in comments transcribed by the Washington Times. “I mean, Carly did not resonate. Not because she’s a woman, but Carly did not resonate at all with people… She had one good debate — not against me — she had the debate on the other stage, if you remember.”
Trump added that he thinks Fiorina is a “nice person” but said he simply does not regard her as the right person for the job.
“She had the one good debate, she went up and then she dropped like a rock, and she never resonated with the people,” Trump noted. “So I mean, Carly’s not going to do the trick.”
While the rivalry between Donald Trump and Carly Fiorina never reached the level of vitriol that currently exists between Trump and chief rival Ted Cruz, the real estate mogul did not exactly endear himself to Fiorina when she was still in the running as a candidate. As previously reported by the Inquisitr, a Rolling Stone feature about Trump included a story in which the billionaire ridiculed Fiorina for her looks. Trump eventually played down the inflammatory comments. As for Fiorina, she suggested that Donald Trump’s remarks provided insight into how he typically perceives and treats women.
While there are no definite signs that Carly Fiorina will join Ted Cruz as his pick for vice president, she has strong ties to Cruz, having endorsed the senator after suspending her own campaign. Fiorina has joined Ted Cruz on the campaign trail since then, and she has not explicitly ruled out a spot on the ticket. In fact, a recent report from CNN indicates that Carly Fiorina has submitted her income tax results to Ted Cruz’s campaign staff as part of the vetting process.
As recently as Tuesday, Ted Cruz told the media to stand down on speculation that Ohio Governor John Kasich would be a good pick for vice president in light of their recent pact to block Donald Trump from winning the nomination. Cruz told CNN that their alliance was simply strategic and not a launch pad for other endeavors.
“I think that is very, very premature. I respect John Kasich, he is a good and capable man, but I think at this point we’ve made a decision about allocation of resources,” Cruz said.
In the meantime, Carly Fiorina has publicly acknowledged that the vetting process is underway, telling WABC’s Rita Cosby to “never say never” when it comes to a possible spot as vice president.
[Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images]
