Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump drew boos from audience members during Tuesday night’s debate when he complained that Carly Fiorina—the only woman candidate on the stage -- was repeatedly “interrupting everybody.”
In the lead up to the criticism, Fiorina attacked the real estate mogul for suggesting the U.S. could work with Russia in taking on the terrorist group known as ISIS. “You know, Mr. Trump fancies himself a very good negotiator, and I accept that he’s done a lot of good deals,” the former Hewlett-Packard CEO said at the event in Milwaukee. “So, Mr. Trump ought to know that we should not speak to people from a position of weakness.”
She took another dig at Trump, noting she had met Putin “not in a green room for a show, but in a private meeting.”
Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky then began to speak about foreign policy when Fiorina jumped in to make a point about former President Ronald Reagan, to which Trump asked, “Why does she keep interrupting everybody?”
Criticizing the only female on stage, when other male candidates were interrupting each other as well, did not go over well. Some in the audience laughed at Trump – who has been skewered in the past for making sexist comments—and he was eventually drowned out by boos.
Fiorina was hardly the only candidate to interrupt her fellow Republicans – most notably Ohio Gov. John Kasich, who at one point was also told by Trump to “Let Jeb speak,” referring to the former Florida governor.
During September’s debate, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (who was demoted to the undercard debate this time around) also called Fiorina out for interrupting, saying “Carly listen. You can interrupt anybody else on this stage, you can’t interrupt me.”
Fiorina, however, may have been a bit misleading when it comes to her jab at Trump on Tuesday for meeting Putin in a green room instead of a more serious setting. In fact, during a September interview on “The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon,” she used the term “green room” to describe her own encounter with the Russian leader.
“I met him [Putin] in Beijing. We were in sort of a green room setting—each of us were giving a speech at a major economic conference,” she said.