Fiorina Defies the Kochs

Carly Fiorina is on the move. What she needs to keep the wheels greased is money. But on Tuesday, she said she won’t change her opposition to an increase in immigration in order to get cash.

GOP mega-donors Charles and David Koch have piles of cash, and they might give some of it to Fiorina, but the titans of industry favor a greater influx of foreign workers.

Appearing Tuesday on “The Laura Ingraham Show,” Fiorina said she won’t sacrifice principle to appease the Koch brothers.

“There is no conversation with a donor of any level — I don’t care if it’s $5 or $5,000 — that says, ‘This is what I will do for you on this issue,’” Fiorina said. “A, I wouldn’t do that. B, it’s illegal. So the point is, this is not some trade for a position.”

If the big donors who have backed former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush sour on him, Fiorina could find herself competing with Florida Sen. Marco Rubio as a backup option. She took a shot Tuesday at Rubio’s primarily legislative experience.

“(With) all due respect to Marco Rubio, who is a great candidate, a tough vote is not a tough call,” Fiorina said. “You can’t learn executive decision-making on the fly in the Oval Office.”

The Koch brothers, wealthy industrialists who have given millions of dollars to Republican candidates and conservative causes, have made it a priority to bring Latinos into the GOP fold. They also have publicly searched for presidential candidates who can appeal to competing factions of conservatism.

But Fiorina, a former Hewlett-Packard CEO who currently sits in third place in national polls of Republican voters, said she opposes an increase in immigration. She also has called for cracking down on so-called “sanctuary cities” and more aggressively patrolling the U.S.-Mexico border.

“Yeah, I am at odds in some cases with where the Koch brothers are on immigration,” Fiorina said.

“Yeah, I am at odds in some cases with where the Koch brothers are on immigration. But to me the answer is very clear now. We have an immigration system that is out of control,” she said. “And it has been out of control for far too long … I’m tired of listening to politicians talk about it. Because that’s all they do.”

Fiorina made it clear that the country’s problems go far beyond a failure to stop foreigners from entering without permission.

“Our legal immigration system has been a problem for 25 years now. It truly has,” she said. “We let the wrong people in. We send the wrong back home.”

Fiorina said America needs to better enforce existing laws and create an employment-verification system that actually works. She said the country also needs to help immigrants assimilate.

“We are putting our melting pot, unique American culture at risk,” she said.