Carly Fiorina is being accused of “ambushing” a pre-school field trip in order to stage an anti-abortion rally, angering a parent who was swept into the event.
According to a report from the Guardian, Fiorina directed a group of 15 children, who were on a field trip, to a stage for a rally that was simultaneously taking place at the Greater Des Moines botanical garden.
One parent interviewed by a Guardian reporter, who was following the campaign Wednesday, was upset about the way the event unfolded.
“She ambushed my son’s field trip,” Chris Beck, the parent, said.
Sarah Isgur Flores, Fiorina’s deputy campaign manager, said nothing was amiss with the event.
“In Des Moines yesterday, a group of preschoolers along with their parents and teachers followed Carly right into the event she was speaking at for Iowa Right to Life,” Flores said in a statement. “Earlier, she’d run into the kids in the Botanical Gardens and watched the Koi with them for a while. I guess the kids must have thought she was pretty neat because then their teachers and parents and the kids all followed Carly into the event complete with Carly stickers.”
But Beck said the children’s parents did not give permission for their children to be featured in the rally.
“Taking them into a pro-life, abortion discussion (was) very poor taste and judgment,” Beck said, according to the Guardian’s report. “I would not want my four-year-old going to that forum. He can’t fully comprehend that stuff. He likes dinosaurs, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Transformers.”
Beck, who is from Iowa, said he would not be voting for Fiorina in the critical upcoming caucuses.