SOUTH PORTLAND, Maine - Visiting Maine Thursday, Republican presidential hopeful Carly Fiorina promised she would increase accountability in the federal government and in the White House if she's elected as the nation's chief executive.
Fiorina spoke before about 500 people at a sold-out luncheon in South Portland organized by the Maine Heritage Policy Center, a conservative advocacy group.
The former Hewlett-Packard CEO - one of 17 candidates seeking the GOP nomination - said if she becomes president she'll hold daily press briefings and would also visit Congress every week to take questions from representatives on both sides of the aisle "because I think it's quite high time that the president remember who they work for. And, indeed, the president of the United States works for - is paid by - the people of these United States."
Fiorina also pledged to make the federal government more accountable, as well as significantly smaller. "How do you do that? Well, we have some really golden opportunities in front of us for someone who understands a bureaucracy. In the next four or five or six years, we're going to have over 250,000 baby boomers retire from the federal government. I make you a promise I will not replace a single one."
Maine Democrats put out a statement ahead of Fiorina's visit, criticizing her "failed business record," pointing out that she presided over 30,000 job losses at Hewlett-Packard. Fiorina responded in her speech, saying that under her leadership the company doubled in size despite the recession, and became a market leader.
She also responded to critics who had pointed out that she was fired from a her job at H-P. Fiorina said she was fired in a "board-room brawl" because she challenged the status quo - something she says she intends to do as president.