Fiorina responds to debate debacle

Courtney Paul / Feb 9, 2016 / Fiorina, Politics / Comments are closed / 1600 Views

Guests wait for Carly Fiorina to speak at her pre-Super Bowl party. Photo by Anna Sortino

MANCHESTER, N.H. – Carly Fiorina was left out of Saturday night’s GOP debate. And she had a lot to say about it.

On Sunday, Fiorina hosted 200 people at a Super Bowl pre-watch party at The Yard restaurant and bar. Red, white, blue and football-shaped balloons decorated tables lined with fan-favorite tailgate foods.

Unlike other candidates’ rally banners printed with short phrases like “A New American Century” or ”Reigniting the Promise of America,” Fiorina’s banners presented detailed descriptions of key platform pieces.

After partygoers had filled their plates, Fiorina spoke with them, briefly about her platform, but ultimately about the state of her campaign for the presidential nomination.

Carly Fiorina mingles with her supporters following her speech at her Super Bowl pre-watch party. Photo by Courtney Paul

“Tonight is the Super Bowl. In both of those locker rooms right now, there is a coach sitting there talking to those teams and saying, ‘You know, we’ve had a great season, we’ve had a great run to this point, and it all comes down to this game now…And I feel like that’s kind of like where we are here,” Fiorina said of her campaign and the importance of New Hampshire to her run for the Republican nomination.

Last week, Fiorina recorded 1.9 percent of the Republican caucus vote in Iowa, finishing sixth in the pack above Ohio Gov. John Kasich and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie.

Both Kasich and Christie participated in Saturday night’s debate. Yet Fiorina was not invited to participate.

“The game is rigged,” Fiorina said of her exclusion from the debate. “It’s rigged not against me but against you.”

As she thanked the people of New Hampshire for inspiring her decision to enter the presidential race, she also delivered them a warning.

“Politicians, the political class, the media think they know better than you,” Fiorina said, suggesting that these people chose to dismiss her from the debate despite strong support in New Hampshire. “We need to make sure that the people of the nation know that we pick presidents.”