Fiorina Slammed as ‘Queen of Outsourcing’

Key Donald Trump strategist Paul Manafort dismissed Carly Fiorina as the “queen of outsourcing” and promised forthcoming endorsements of the GOP front-runner from Capitol Hill.

Manafort, brought on board the Trump campaign to help gather delegates and prepare for a possible contested convention, said on “The Laura Ingraham Show” Thursday that Sen. Ted Cruz’s pre-nomination selection of Fiorina as his running mate was an act of desperation in a primary contest that is virtually over.

“He talks about being pro-jobs, and then he picks a vice presidential candidate in a desperate act who is the queen of outsourcing when she was in the corporate world,” he said. “I still can’t figure out the decision of having such a selection made and announced in Indiana, a state where Donald Trump is talking about the damage that they’ve suffered because of outsourcing.”

That is a reference to Fiorina’s rocky tenure as CEO of Hewlett-Packard, during which the technology firm laid off 30,000 U.S. workers.

Manafort also ripped Cruz’s depiction of Trump as a liberal.

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“Everything he’s saying, he’s just making up,” he said. “I mean, there’s no basis in fact on anything he’s saying … We’re not paying any attention to it.”

Manafort praised the foreign policy speech that Trump delivered on Wednesday. He said Trump is getting more comfortable with the teleprompter, a device he rarely uses. Manafort said Trump is at his best speaking off the cuff to the American people.

“Frankly, going back over the last 40 years of my involvement in politics, there’s nobody who communicates with the American people any better,” he said. “Even Ronald Reagan, the great communicator that he was, you know, his skills were much more developed when he finally ran for president.”

He said Trump has not shared his thoughts about a possible running mate and has not decided how to finance a general election campaign.

“When it comes to the general election, we’re no longer running as an individual — we’re running as the head of a ticket,” he said. “And so the party itself will be doing some things to raise money. And Mr. Trump has indicated that he’d be willing to help the party.”

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Manafort called on party leaders to coalesce around Trump and said it is already starting to happen. He said he met Thursday with Republican members of Congress.

“That’s why it’s important for Republican leaders now to start leading and falling in behind the candidacy of Trump,” he said. “I mean, the Republican primary process is almost done.”

He also said he does not anticipate a fractious convention with multiple rounds of balloting.

“I do think the party will come together. I do think that a lot of the games that have been played in the states will not be played in Cleveland.”