After more than seven months on the presidential campaign trail, Carly Fiorina can’t be altogether pleased with how things have gone. Perhaps the most memorable moment of her candidacy to date was when Fiorina lied about anti-abortion videos, and when confronted with reality, she refused to acknowledge the obvious fact that she wasn’t telling the truth.
But while that incident may serve as Peak Fiorina, The Guardian reports today on a separate incident that, if true, is nearly as striking.
Carly Fiorina has been accused of “ambushing” a group of children, after she ushered pre-schoolers, who were on a field trip to a botanical garden, into an anti-abortion rally in Des Moines.On Wednesday, the former Hewlett-Packard chief executive embarked on a day of campaigning across Iowa, in an attempt to boost her ailing presidential campaign.The alleged ambush occurred when Fiorina hosted a “right to life” forum at the Greater Des Moines botanical garden. Entering the rally, before a crowd of about 60 people, she directed around 15 young children towards a makeshift stage.
And while that may not seem particularly alarming at first, according to at least one parent, some of those children just happened to be visiting a botanical garden — and the families hadn’t given the Republican candidate permission to include the kids in her anti-abortion event.
Indeed, this wasn’t just some random photo-op. According to the article, the children were seated “in front of a huge banner bearing the image” of a fetus — while Fiorina “talked about harvesting organs from aborted babies.”
One parent said plainly, “The kids went there to see the plants…. She ambushed my son’s field trip.”
Asked about whether the campaign — and the candidate herself — used the children as props without permission, a Fiorina spokesperson told The Guardian, “We were happy that these children chose to come to Carly’s event with their adult supervisor.”
I haven’t seen video of the event, but the Des Moines Register‘s report had a more charitable take on the incident, making it sound as if it was the kids’ idea to join the event.
Republican presidential candidate Carly Fiorina headed straight for a group of giggling 4- and 5-year-olds as she walked into the Greater Des Moines Botanical Garden Wednesday morning.After a breakfast event in Guthrie Center, the former CEO of Hewlett-Packard was right on time for her speech at the Iowa Right to Life Presidential Forum, but she stopped and bent down to answer the youngsters’ questions about flora and fauna. With her aides getting antsy, Fiorina attempted to say goodbye, but the kids decided they’d rather follow.“We’re being told to sit down and be quiet about our God, about our guns and about the sanctity of life,” Fiorina said with the children forming a semi-circle around her.
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Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past."