Hillary Clinton said Thursday that the Republican presidential debate was devoid of substance.
Speaking in an exclusive interview with CNN’s Wolf Blitzer on “The Situation Room,” Clinton chalked up the debate to “the usual back-and-forth — political attacks, the kinds of things you say when you’re on a debate stage and you really don’t have much else to say.”
She blasted the GOP candidates in the 2016 presidential race for failing to address student debt, equal pay for women and income inequality.
“I don’t really pay a lot of attention to this kind of rhetoric that heats up the debate stage. They’re all trying to vie for more attention from, obviously, the Republican Party,” Clinton said.
Clinton was a prime target at the debate hosted by CNN at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library. GOP 2016 hopefuls, including Carly Fiorina, Chris Christie and front-runner Donald Trump, attacked her record as secretary of state as well as her trustworthiness.
On Thursday, Clinton’s team seized on the candidates’ comments, particularly their virulent opposition to Planned Parenthood, the controversial women’s health organization that provides cancer screenings, health services and abortions.
In a written statement to reporters, Clinton said the Republican debate continued the party’s “race to the bottom on women’s health and women’s rights” because “every single candidate on stage has pledged to defund Planned Parenthood if they become president.”
She added, “Repeating false statements doesn’t make them true, no matter how many times you do it.”
But Clinton took it a step further Thursday, calling on House Speaker John Boehner to not shut down the government over Planned Parenthood.
Some Republicans in Congress have pushed for Congress to tie defunding Planned Parenthood to funding the government, thou some House GOP leaders are actively exploring a plan that would target the organization through a stand-alone measure, not tying it to the budget.
“Speaker Boehner and his colleagues have a job to do, and they should do it,” Clinton said. “Here’s my message to them: don’t attack women’s health care. And don’t shut down the government.”
Thursday’s live interview comes as the Clinton campaign has said it is going to try to showcase the former secretary of state’s more spontaneous and charming side, as her early lead in most polls has slid. Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders has even taken the lead in some surveys in the key primary states of Iowa and New Hampshire.
Wednesday night, Clinton appeared on “The Tonight Show,” where she let Jimmy Fallon tug on her hair to prove it was real and participated in a sketch where she was interviewed by “Donald Trump” — as played by Fallon.
And last week, Clinton sat down for a series of interviews in which she apologized for the decision to use a private email server while at the State Department — an effort by her campaign to try to put the lingering, damaging issue behind it.
The former secretary of state is traveling in New Hampshire on Thursday, where she received the endorsement of the state’s governor, Maggie Hassan.