Carly Fiorina dominated a smaller, less-glamorous debate stage Thursday when she joined two other low-polling Republican presidential candidates to discuss everything from national security to technology and Hillary Clinton.
Fiorina’s candidacy has largely been defined by memorable debate performances. And even though she was dropped from the prime-time stage at the debate sponsored by Fox Business Network, she still delivered in the undercard. Right out of the gate, she dealt a sharp personal attack on Clinton, the Democratic front-runner.
“I’m not a political insider. I haven’t spent my lifetime running for office,” the former Hewlett-Packard CEO said. “And unlike another woman in this race, I actually love spending time with my husband.”
Minutes later, Fiorina trained her fire on GOP front-runner Donald Trump.
“Despite Donald Trump’s bromance with Vladimir Putin … Russia is our adversary,” she said.
All eyes will be on Trump and Sen. Ted Cruz when the GOP’s top-polling White House contenders take the prime-time stage for one of the final debates before the Iowa caucuses.
While there has been plenty of animosity between Trump and most of his rivals, the billionaire businessman and Cruz have been on largely friendly territory for much of the campaign season. That’s changed, however, as the polls in Iowa tighten ahead of the February 1 caucuses.
Trump has gone after Cruz over the past week, raising questions about his eligibility to serve as president because of his birth in Canada — an issue Trump said he will raise at the debate, which is sponsored by Fox Business Network.
“I’m sure we’ll get into it tomorrow night,” Trump told a crowd of 11,000 supporters in Pensacola, Florida, on Wednesday.
Cruz has largely responded to Trump with humor — or ignored him altogether — but in recent days, he has started returning fire. He insists he’s eligible for the presidency because he’s a “natural-born” citizen with an American mother. And he’s accused Trump of embodying “New York values.”
“The rest of the country knows what New York values are,” Cruz said on Fox News.
Marco Rubio, Ben Carson, Chris Christie, Jeb Bush and John Kasich will join Cruz and Trump at the main event. Pressure is mounting for someone from the rest of the field to emerge as the clear alternative to Trump and Cruz.
Party leaders are anxiously looking on, hoping that someone will be able to dampen Trump’s and Cruz’ momentum.
Rubio will likely take fire for his role in the 2013 immigration debate, while even a strong performance from Bush may not be enough to allay concerns that his campaign is at risk of faltering.
For Carson, who enjoyed a brief moment at the top of the national polls, this marks his first debate since a major campaign staff shakeup at the end of the year. Christie and Kasich, both laser-focused on New Hampshire, will want to use the debate to strengthen their standing before the February 9 primary.
Mike Huckabee and Rick Santorum joined Fiorina at the earlier undercard debate. All three of the candidates were sharply critical of President Barack Obama on issues such as gun control, national security and the economy.
“We have a president who seems to be more interested in protecting the reputation and image of Islam than protecting us,” Huckabee said.
Santorum, whose core base includes blue-collar conservatives, slammed the President on job creation.
“The numbers just don’t add up,” he said. Obama “has done more to take jobs away from the hard-working people who are struggling the most.”
Rand Paul, who also didn’t qualify for the main debate, skipped the event.
“People have to realize that what the media is doing here is predeciding an election,” Paul said on CNN’s “New Day.”