Fiorina owes Clinton debt of gratitude

GOP presidential candidate Carly Fiorina said Sunday that she admired Hillary Clinton but also accused the Democratic front-runner of lying about her emails and the attack in Benghazi.

Fiorina, the only woman running for the GOP nomination, said on NBC’s “Meet the Press” that she might not be taken seriously without Clinton’s 2008 bid for the White House.

{mosads}Still, she added, “there’s nothing inconsistent about me saying I admire Hillary Clinton in many ways, that we owe her a debt of gratitude in many ways, and also saying, I do not think she should be president of the United States, and I will use all of my energy, as our nominee, to defeat her.”

Fiorina, the former Hewlett-Packard chief executive who unsuccessfully ran for Senate in 2010, also called Clinton “hardworking,” “intelligent” and someone who “has dedicated herself to public service.”

“She was the first serious woman candidate for president. We do owe her a debt of gratitude,” Fiorina said.  “Look, unlike liberal women, liberal women have called my candidacy an offense to women, okay?  Unlike liberal women, I celebrate every woman’s right to live the life she chooses.”

But Fiorina insisted that Clinton was not only lying about the personal email server she used as secretary of State but also by not immediately saying in public that the 2012 attack in Benghazi, Libya, was a terrorist attack.