Carly Fiorina stood face-to-face with Donald Trump, taking him down a notch Wednesday over his controversial remarks on her appearance at the second top-tier 2016 GOP presidential debate.
“Look at that face!” Trump recently told Rolling Stone of Fiorina in a recent interview. “Would anyone vote for that? Can you imagine that, the face of our next president?” Trump later said he was talking about Fiorina’s “persona,” but instead of apologizing, the Republican front-runner doubled down on his comments.
“I think women all over this country heard very clearly what Mr. Trump said,” Fiorina said on Wednesday with a steely expression to wild applause from the audience at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Los Angeles.
“I think she’s got a beautiful face and she’s a beautiful woman,” Trump returned, again commenting on the Republican candidate’s looks.
The exchange headlined an evening-long back and forth between the two.
“Immigration in 2016 did not come up because of you, we have been talking about it for 25 years,” Fiorina fired off, referencing Trump’s repeated claim that immigration wouldn’t be an issue in 2016 if he hadn’t run.
“Not with this intensity,” Trump repeated. Earlier, Fiorina gave Trump a back-handed compliment, dubbing him a “wonderful entertainer” who’s “been terrific at that business.” Prior to the debate, Fiorina told CNBC “Donald Trump has said many things about other candidates, but he has not talked about their appearance.” In that same interview, Fiorina promised that the real estate mogul was “going to be hearing quite a lot” from her in the debate. And yet, despite her criticism of Trump – and efforts on the part of her campaign to capitalize on the backlash against his remarks – Fiorina herself is not immune to personal attacks of opponents’ looks, either. During her failed 2010 California U.S. Senate bid, Fiorina was caught on a ‘hot mic’ joking that incumbent Democratic Sen. Barbara Boxer’s hair was “so yesterday.”
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