Fiorina: Hillary ‘channeling’ Elizabeth Warren

Likely GOP presidential candidate Carly Fiorina said Thursday that Hillary Clinton is channeling Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), as she sought to portray the former secretary of State as catering to the liberal wing of the Democratic Party.

“Hillary Clinton, of course, is channeling the populist fervor of Elizabeth Warren,” Fiorina said at a forum hosted by The Christian Science Monitor in Washington. “Her policies are crushing the middle class.”

Clinton, who announced her presidential campaign on Sunday, penned Warren’s feature in Time magazine’s list of 100 leaders released earlier Thursday, lauding the big bank critic as a “progressive champion.”

Fiorina also suggested she could serve as a foil to Hillary’s appeal as a female candidate, arguing that if Clinton “were to face a female nominee, there are a whole set of things that she won’t be able to talk about.”

“She won’t be able to talk about being the first woman president. She won’t be able to talk about a war on women without being challenged. She won’t be able to play the gender card,” Fiorina said.

Fiorina is expected to announce her campaign in early May. She would be the only female candidate in the Republican field.

“Women are half the nation, and the full potential of women has not yet been tapped,” Fiorina said.

Fiorina, the former CEO of Hewlett-Packard and failed 2010 California GOP Senate candidate, sought to position herself as a political outsider with vast business experience.

“I’m not a neophyte in government, but I’m not a career politician,” she said.

She said her expected campaign would be different in tone than 2012 GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney, who also sought to focus a large portion of his campaign on his business record.

“All business people aren’t alike,” she said. “Tone matters.”

She defended her business record, saying that she helped lead HP to be more innovative and grew the company. She was ousted as CEO in 2005.