WASHINGTON — (CNN) Republican presidential candidate Carly Fiorina said Donald Trump’s insulting comments regarding women — which Fox News moderator Megyn Kelly brought up in Thursday’s debate — are inappropriate.
“I have said for some time that no one who claims to represent our party should ever be judgmental in tone, vitriolic or angry,” Fiorina told CNN’s Brooke Baldwin on Friday.
“I just think it’s inappropriate to call people names.”
Fiorina, the only Republican woman running for president, shared her views on CNN’s “New Day” just hours after she wrapped up her debate performance among six other presidential candidates who did not poll well enough to be in the prime-time debate.
Fiorina also connected Trump’s name calling to recent remarks President Barack Obama made in regards to opponents of the Iran nuclear deal.
“By the way Trump isn’t the only one who does it,” she said. “Obama compared Republicans to people in Iran chanting death to America. It’s unfair anytime people start calling other people names. It’s uncalled for. It does not help our political debate and I think it has no place in our politics.”
Fiorina, who many considered last night’s standout winner, hopes her performance at the earlier debate leads to increased support.
“Last night was a beginning. As of 4 p,m. yesterday, only 40 percent of Republican voters had ever heard my name,” she said. “I have the lowest name identification of any one in the race because I’m not a professional politician and I’m not a celebrity.”
Fellow Republican candidate Rick Perry praised Fiorina’s negotiating skills during the earlier debate alluding to her experience as the first woman to lead one of the top 20 U.S. companies.
But Democratic National Committee Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz told “New Day” on Friday that Fiorina’s attacks on Hillary Clinton are surprising considering her own professional failures.
“Fiorina’s comments are rich coming from someone who almost drove a Fortune 500 company into the ground, who was fired as a result, who’s stock dropped by 50 percent when she was CEO,” she said.
“This is a woman who doesn’t have the track record of managing a large organization and now she’s running for President of the United States?’
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