please help me welcome to the national press club carly fiorina. [applause] >> thank you and good afternoon. it is great to be with all of you. i was recently asked what i thought an entrepreneur was. a member of the press corps said, what is an innovator? i had to think for a moment. my answer was an entrepreneur and innovator is someone who can envision a different future. an entrepreneur is someone who dreams big. and works long hours. an entrepreneur is someone who sees possibilities. by seizing those possibilities, they create possibilities for others. because it is almost a fourth of july, i thought on the way here about what makes this country great, what is so special about this country. as you heard in the introduction, i began my career as a young adult as a secretary. i graduated from stanford university with a degree in medieval history and philosophy in the middle of a recession. which meant i was all dressed up and nowhere to go. like so many in my situation, i decided to go to law school. the only thing as i hated law school. i quit

now former hewlett-packard ceo carly fiorina, doe alternate excess merchandise to charity. this is about an hour. >> good afternoon and welcome to the national press club. my name is angela, i'm president of the national press club and reporter with bloomberg news. we are the world leading professional organization for journalist, committed to our profession future. for more information about the national press club please visit our website at www.press.org. to donate to programs offered to the public through our national press club journal institute please visit press.org/institute. on behalf our members worldwide i like to welcome our speaker today and those of you in our audience. if you hear applause in our audience, members of the general public are also attending. so it's not necessarily evidence of a lack of journalistic objectivity. i also like to welcome our c-span and public radio audiences. you can follow the action today on twitter using the hash tag npc lunch. now it's time to introduce our head table guests. i'd ask each of you to stand briefly. from your righ

. >> carly fiorina, same question. was it right to invade iraq? yes or no. we know a lot. >> given what we thought we knew at the time, yes. i supported that decision then, i support it now. however. >> it was a smart decision to go to iraq? >> yes, given what we thought we knew. now it turns out the information was wrong. there were no weapons of mass destruction although virtually every intelligence agency around the world stood together and say yes he had them. big important however, we mismanaged that war tremendously. we had unrealistic expectations. we didn't resource it appropriately. so there were many, many mistakes made. >> my opinion wmd, the claim had nothing to do with that war. the people that wanted that war from dick cheney to the neo-cons the whole batch decided on that how do you square that with your concern about the accuracy of the intel when in the fact the people led us into there said it didn't matter there was no wmd. explain. >> it's a very good question. >> it sure is. >> i think casting aspersions on the cia and british intelligen

on the other hand, there are real threats we have to respond to. >> carly fiorina, same question. was it right to invade iraq? yes or no. we know a lot. >> given what we thought we knew at the time, yes. i supported that decision then, i support it now. however. >> it was a smart decision to go to iraq? >> yes, given what we thought we knew. now it turns out the information was wrong. there were no weapons of mass destruction although virtually every intelligence agency around the world stood together and said yes, he had them. however, big important however. we mismanaged that war tremendously. we had unrealistic expectations. we didn't resource it appropriately. so there were many, many mistakes made. >> my opinion wmd, the claim had nothing to do with that war. the people that wanted that war from dick cheney to the neo-cons the whole batch of them, including w. decided on that war because they wanted to go to war with saddam hussein. number two. >> then you're casting. >> no, afterwards, they said even though there was no wmd, this he said they were still right to invade. how

. >>> former hewlett packer chairman and ceo carly fiorina spoke monday. this is an hour. [inaudible conversations] good afternoon, welcome to the national press club. my name is ankle bracelet angela. i'm a report we are bloomberg world. rethe world's leading professional organization for journalists committed to the future through programming with the event such as this while fostering a free press worldwide. for more information about the national press club, please visit our westbound -- website www.press.org. and if you hear applause in the audience, i note that members of the generally public are also attending. it's not necessarily evidence of a lack of journalistic on. i would like to welcome c-span and public radio. cow can follow it on twitter using #npc lunch. we'll have question and an period. i'll ask as many questions as time permits. it's time to introduce our head stable guests. from your right, kevin, retired u.s. navy captain now with the group. lynn cooper, weekly tk contributor to black enterprise and founder and chief officer. christopher chambers prof

today we will hear more about that work and please help me welcome carly fiorina. [applause] >> thank you and good afternoon. it is great to be with all of you and we have met new friends and we have also seen some old friends here as well. i was recently asked what i thought an entrepreneur was. in fact, a member of the press corps said to me, what is an innovator. i have to think about that for a moment. my answer was an entrepreneur and an innovator is someone who can envision a different future. it is someone who can dream big and work long hours. an entrepreneur is someone who sees possibilities. by seizing the possibilities, creates possibilities for others. because it is almost the fourth of july, i also saw on the way here what makes this country great. what is so special about this country. as you heard in the introduction, i began my career as a young adult as a secretary and a graduated from stanford university with a degree in medieval history and philosophy. in the middle of a recession. [laughter] which meant that i was all dressed up and nowhere to g

please help me welcome to the national press club carly fiorina. [applause] >> thank you and good afternoon. it is great to be with all of you. what iecently asked thought an entrepreneur was. of the press corps said, what is an innovator? i had to think for a moment. my answer was an entrepreneur and innovator is someone who can envision a different future. an entrepreneur is someone who dreams big. and works long hours. an entrepreneur is someone who sees possibilities. by seizing those possibilities, they create possibilities for others. because it is almost a fourth of july, also fought on the way here about what makes this country great, what is so special about this country. as you heard in the introduction, i began my career a secretary.ult as a graduated from stanford university with a degree in medieval history and philosophy. in the middle of a recession. upch meant i was all dressed and nowhere to go. like so many in my situation, i .ecided to go to law school the only thing as i hated law school. i quit after a single semester. in order

are reaching out looking t form an alliance with union leaders, former hewlett-packard ceo carly freer fiorinahis is prove more proof this is a train wreck. you want to talk about cats and dogs hanging out. >> more proof the law is fatally flawed there are so many unintended consequences truth is that people, januaries who felt they were providing good he'll coverage are now a-- health coverage are afraid their members will lose that coverage this makes sense. it makes sense for republicans and unions to try to find some ace take to try to get this thing repealed. i think time will tell whether thats t union's real goal here. or whether ther their goal is to carve out an exception for themselves and the heck to everybody else. charles: i thought there was so many stories on this but when they were debating the cadillac plan part, really good health plans that most union members have i heard someone say that unions would have some sort of exemption, i suspect that unions thought they would not have to pay into this like everyone element do yoeveryoneelse. >> i remember the same thing there was