Former Republican presidential candidate Carly Fiorina told CNBC on Thursday she continues to support Democratic nominee Joe Biden‘s candidacy despite their ideological differences.
“I don’t always agree with Joe Biden’s policies, but I do think character counts. I think leadership matters,” Fiorina said on “Squawk Alley,” a little over a month before Election Day and just days before the first debate between Biden and President Donald Trump
With the U.S. experiencing a persistent pandemic, and rebounding from the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression along with it, Fiorina said she believes Biden is better equipped to help the nation recover than Trump.
“I think collaboration is now critical, not just collaboration across the aisle, Republican to Democrat for sure, collaboration between city governments wrestling with a whole host of issues, including social injustice and the federal government,” she said. “And I think Trump has demonstrated his unwillingness and incapacity to lead or to collaborate.”
Biden, the former vice president under Barack Obama, currently holds a 7 percentage point lead over Trump in an average of national polls compiled by RealClearPolitics.
Fiorina, the former chief executive of Hewlett-Packard from 1999 to 2005, was among the crowded field of candidates for the 2016 GOP presidential nomination, which was ultimately won by Trump. Fiorina also once mounted a bid for U.S. Senate in California as a Republican.
She is not the only Republican who has publicly broken from the party and endorsed Biden, who represented Delaware in the Senate for more than three decades before he became vice president. Most recently, Cindy McCain, the widow of former Senator and 2008 GOP presidential nominee John McCain, announced her support for Biden.
“In business we focus on results, and I think his results do not earn him a second term,” Fiorina said of Trump, a New York real estate developer before beginning his political career.
Despite high-profile opposition from Fiorina and others, Trump still maintains overwhelming support in the Republican Party.
The Trump campaign did not immediately respond to CNBC’s request for comment.
