DeVore, Fiorina stump on the Glenn Beck show
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GOP Senate candidates Carly Fiorina and Chuck DeVore, battling for their party’s nomination to take on incumbent Democratic Sen. Barbara Boxer, appeared this afternoon on Glenn Beck’s show on the Fox News Channel, which is filming in Los Angeles this week.
Beck introduced DeVore as the “Tea Party favorite” and praised the Orange County assemblyman’s low rating from organizations such as the Sierra Club and Planned Parenthood. He noted that DeVore resigned his whip position last year when the Republican leadership backed a massive tax increase that ended up being rejected by voters.
“I couldn’t be part of leadership and promote something I knew was going to kill the economy,” DeVore said.
DeVore and Beck also talked about the progressive movement that began in the late 1800s, which they described as the “disease” responsible for all the modern problems in the federal government.
You can watch DeVore and Fiorina on the show below.
“It is the disease because it’s anti-Constitution,” DeVore said. “They saw the Constitution as a roadblock to their grand designs.”
Beck noted that he does not endorse candidates, but he seemed charmed by DeVore, at one point turning to him and saying, “You intrigue me.”
Fiorina was on the show earlier in the hour, and the former Hewlett-Packard chief painted herself as an outsider who feels compelled to seek office because of the dire problems facing the nation.
“I know how the real world works,” she said.
She pledged to cut spending, root out waste and not raise taxes if elected.
“That’s our money,” Fiorina said.
One person who apparently did not intrigue the show’s producers is the third candidate running for the GOP nomination, former Congressman Tom Campbell. His spokesman said Campbell, the front-runner in early polling, was not invited.
Before their appearances on the show, DeVore and Fiorina apparently met in the green room and had their makeup applied side by side. It was the first time the two candidates had met in person, and they reportedly played nice. DeVore’s wife, Diane, brought pie for everyone; Beck had a slice before going on the air. [Updated at 7:25 pm.: The two candidates actually met for the first time one year ago at a reception at the California Republican Party convention.]
The stiff but pleasant meeting would be a departure from last week, when DeVore ambushed Fiorina on a popular radio show: He tried to get her to commit to a debate and accused her of flip-flopping on issues such as the Wall Street bailout; Fiorina accused him of misrepresenting her record.
-- Seema Mehta in Los Angeles