Republican presidential candidate Carly Fiorina argued that “Hillary Clinton would wipe the floor with” Donald Trump in a general election match up, speaking to conservative commentator and Glamour magazine columnist, S.E. Cupp.
“Look, Donald Trump is controversial. Donald Trump is entertaining. Donald Trump is not a leader, and I do not think Donald Trump will be our nominee. If he were, Hillary Clinton would wipe the floor with him,” Fiorina said in a new interview published on Glamour on Tuesday, declining to say whether she’d support him if he were the nominee.
It’s the latest shot fired in the months-long battle of the words between the two candidates. Trump has criticized the former Hewlett Packard CEO's looks and business record, while Fiorina landed a few well-crafted zings on the Republican front-runner in the debates. While polling number shows Clinton leading Trump in a general election match-up, it's far from a sweep.
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On Thursday, while Trump appears center stage yet again, Fiorina will be downgraded from the mainstage Republican debate to the undercard thanks to low-polling. While a similarly low-polling Sen. Rand Paul is boycotting the debate to protest his own relegation to the undercard debate, Fiorina on Tuesday said she'll debate anyone, anywhere.
"Well, you know, these polls are all over the map. In the Fox News poll, I'm in 6th place which would qualify me, but hey, I'll debate anyone, anytime, anywhere. I'll be in South Carolina and what I know is that polls don't win elections, voters do," she told CBS News.
The interview in a woman’s magazine highlights Fiorina as the only woman in the crowded Republican field, and the uphill battle she faces wooing many woman, particularly younger women who lean to the left. She fielded a number of questions from Glamour readers, that left her defending her desire to defund Planned Parenthood and dismantle Obamacare.
“Let’s talk about Planned Parenthood and just ask how much they actually do for women's health care. They do some things. But mostly what they do is refer women to other people,” Fiorina says, though a “Glamour fact-check” notes this is inaccurate as more than three quarters of the organizations services like STD testing, treatment, and contraceptive services are all done in-house. Fiorina’s campaign notes accurately, however, that the organization refers out for mammograms.