Carly Fiorina Debate Winner? Former Hewlett Packard Executive Shines In GOP Debate

Was Carly Fiorina the debate winner? The former executive was impressive during the GOP debate aired Thursday evening on Fox News.

Because of her place in the polls, Fiorina was not on the top 10 list of Republican presidential hopefuls and was not included in the prime-time GOP debate, but she’s all the talk the day after. Fox divided the 17 candidates into two groups to fit all of them on stage and gave them the opportunity to answer questions.

Carly Fiorina’s debate appearance came at 5 p.m. ET — as part of the “lower seven” — on the cable news network and post-debate polls suggested she won, by a lot. Supporters and detractors are saying Fiorina’s appearance was stellar and her statements were to the point.

During the debate, Fiorina answered a variety of questions on the economy, social issues, and foreign policy. One of the highlights was her response to the question about what would be the first two phone calls she would make on the first day of her administration.

“The first one would be to my good friend Bibi Netanyahu and it would be to reassure him that we will stand with the state of Israel.

“The second would be to the supreme leader of Iran. He may not take my phone call, but he would get the message and the message is this. Until you open every nuclear and every military facility to full, open, any-time, anywhere — for real — inspections, we are going to make it as difficult as possible to move money around the global financial system.”

However, Carly Fiorina’s debate statements didn’t end with her appearance on stage. In a post-debate interview with MSNBC host Chris Matthews, she made headlines for shutting down the outspoken TV personality. Matthews questioned Fiorina’s closing statement in which she called Democratic hopeful, Hillary Clinton, a liar and Fiorina, once again, proved that she’s a force to be reckoned with.

“First, I was very specific about the subjects about which I think she has lied. I didn’t say she lied about everything. I was very specific, very fact-based, actually. You are the one who has made a generalized comment now about her, not me.”

When Matthews tried to interrupt Carly Fiorina’s statements, she spoke over him with conviction.

“I will debate her on the issues facing this nation. I will debate her on her positions. I will ask her, for example, how she can possibly continue to defend Planned Parenthood. I will ask her why she continues to say she is a champion of the middle class while every single proposal she has put forward makes crony capitalism worse and worse and worse (and) makes income inequality worse.”

After Carly Fiorina’s debate performance, liberal television hosts, such as Mika Brzezinski, said that she is inspired by the GOP hopeful. Are you?

[Photo by Skip Somodevilla/Getty Images]