McCain Defends Fiorina's Golden Parachute

This weekend, John McCain defended unhelpful surrogate Carly Fiorina's generous severance package from Hewlett Packard:

"I think she did a good job as CEO in many respects," McCain told "The Today Show's" Meredith Vieira when she pressed him on the matter in light of McCain's recent accusations of greed on Wall Street.

"I know that she was a very successful businesswoman. Started out as a part-time secretary and made her way to the top of the corporate ladder as one of the biggest CEOs in the United States of America," McCain said after noting that he was unaware of the specifics of her compensation package.

Fiorina received $21 million in severance pay when she was fired as CEO of Hewlett Packard in 2005. She received an additional $21 million when Hewlett Packard's board bought out her company stock options and pension benefits. Her compensation package sparked a lawsuit from shareholders.

McCain admitted, however, that he was not familiar with the details of Fiorina's payout:

McCAIN: I don't think so. ... Because I think she did a good job as CEO in many respects. I don't know the details of her compensation package. But she's one of many advisers that I have.

Q: But she did get a $45 million dollar golden parachute after being fired while 20,000 of her employees were laid off.

McCAIN: I have many of the people, but I do not know the details of what happened.

McCain has vowed to end "multimillion dollar payouts to CEO's who have broken the public trust."

Watch:

Comments

[Floridagirl1972]

Richard.........to answer your question NO and the repugs do not care. They really do think we are all STUPID.

Richard22
McCain "doesn't know the details" about his top economic advisor's job performance as a prominent (and fired) CEO? Does he VET anyone???

[DaOne]

McSame: "Blah, blah, LIE"

[SKonnery]

Noun, verb, lie.

[Floridagirl1972]

OK...so he is going to fight against CEO's getting the "Golden Parachutes" except those that he has on his staff. and so on, and so on, and so on. I do not undertand why anyone would vote for this man. Just 1 lie after another. 20,000 people lose their job and she walks away with millions. Makes me ill!

[JiminNC]

This guy is off the page.

[longislandlol]

He sent all the CEO's shakin today- that Johnny Mcain did-- wants ta cut them down to 400,000 a year---what a lucky girl to bail out with her millions---the repubs usually always signal bailouts amongst themselves?

[MajorKong]

Fiorina was so bad for HP that they gave her $42 million just to make her go away.

[JiminMA]

At the faith forum Each was asked who the three wise persons they would consult in time of crisis.

Mccain said one of the was Carla Fiorina. She was the smartest person he knew from the business sector. So now he says he doesn't know her well enough to know about her demise at HP.

[rgmwdc]

In the Republican world Carly did a great job. She stuffed her pockets while devaluing the company’s worth by 50%, her actions resulted in 20,000 people being laid off, she lead the charge for a misguided and failed merger with Compaq and after being forced to resign she walked away with 42 million - she won the lottery. She screwed her employees; screwed the stock holders and blamed the Hewlett family for meddling in the affairs of the company they founded. Her management style sure feels familiar, it reminds me of the cronies in the Bush administration, these past eight years, who never ask for advice, never take responsibility, and never pay a price for their failed leadership, and disastrous results. This is the type of people John McCain wants to be a part of his administration. More of the same…

[santory]

You can always see when he's lying.... he blinks a lot.
Watch the body, turn off the sound, you'll see it every time!!

Santory

[OneOleMan]

And his lips move

[blueinthebigred]

and he does the silly quote thing with his fingers like mini me

[wagthedog1001]

"I didn't BLINK, Charlie."

[votehillary2012now]

Is Fiorina not the biggest head of mush you have ever seen?

How this person ever came to power (only to destroy) a company like HP is beyond me...

Oh wait...if Bush can be prez.......hmmmmm

[Sassafras63]

It's all good Mac...details aren't important...they just tend to make your head hurt.

[chs1965]

Don't need details, facts just get in the way. How inconvenient. Just like his pal, W.

[ScandalousCandice]

Even now he is lying about Fiorina. If he really cared about her or wasn't pissed off about her stupid remarks then she wouldn't have been yanked from every single media outlet and yanked from appearances that she was supposed to headline. How can you say someone who was fired for some of the worst handling of a company to come along in ages, did a good job? Fiorina was one of the worst CEO's in modern business. Mc-Cain is so stupid.

[DaOne]

Exactly

No Campaign for Old Men

[atila]

So while Senator Obama is running his own campaign showing an amazing leadership this poor ol.d man has not idea who is who inside his campaign??...what kind of leader we want to get us out of this mess?....no rocket science here huh?....

[whiskeytangofoxtrot451]

Dear Lord, does this man pay attention to anything?

[SatinPanties]

Does he KNOW anything!!?? (well besides POW)

[ScandalousCandice]

Sometimes it's better to look stupid than like you are lying..... Wait I am not sure where the logic in that actually is, but some how Mc-Cain has forced me to think that that may be a viable strategy.

[Leota2]

If Americans screw this thing up--we might very well end up with
this incompetent boob as our next POTUS.

Vote!

[wagthedog1001]

I think you are being sexist. Did you imply that boob was wearing lipstick?

[Leota2]

Teehee!