Two more Republican presidential hopefuls spoke to Iowa State Fair crowds this morning. Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker took on members of a Wisconsin labor union, while former Hewlett Packard CEO Carly Fiorina chose to use nearly all of her allotted 20-minutes taking questions from the crowd.
During Walker’s speech on the Des Moines Register Soapbox stage, members of a Wisconsin labor union began heckling the Wisconsin Governor who’s known for stripping bargaining rights from state employees. Walker told the protesters he’s not intimidated by them.
“You want someone who’s tested?! I’m right here! You can see it!” he said. “This is what happened in Wisconsin. We will not back down, we will do what is necessary to defend the American people going forward.”
Walker says he’ll provide a balanced budget and tax relief as president. Early polls showed Walker leading the pack of G-O-P presidential candidates in this first-in-the-nation caucus state, but he’s recently slipped.
Later, Carly Fiorina, the only woman running for the GOP nomination, appeared before a large crowd to answer questions. She was asked how she would respond to recent videos from abortion opponents that suggest Planned Parenthood profits illegally from the sale of fetal tissue.
“If Congress does not have the courage to defund Planned Parenthood, I’ll tell you what a President Fiorina [would do], when we go to zero based budget I simply won’t supply the money to fund Planned Parenthood.”
Fiorina also went after Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton and her time as Secretary of State. Fiorina says she’s had substantive conversations with world leaders and would be strong on foreign policy.
Later in the afternoon, South Carolina Republican Senator Lindsey Graham made his case on the Soapbox for why he should be the next president.
He told a sizable audience there are too many terrorists, too much debt and too few jobs.
“As to the terrorists, if I’m president of the United States, we’re going back to Iraq and we’re going to pound these guys into the ground and we’re not going to leave until the jobs done,” he said.
Graham says he has been to Iraq and Afghanistan 35 times, some of it as a reserve in the military. He recently retired after 33 years.
