In this Aug. 19, 2015 file photo, Republican presidential candidate Carly Fiorina speaks in Londonderry, N.H. A wave of criticism from Republicans and Democrats alike rose Thursday after GOP presidential front-runner Donald Trump insulted the physical appearance of his party’s only female White House contender. AP FILE PHOTO
WASHINGTON — A wave of criticism from Republicans and Democrats alike rose Thursday after Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump insulted the physical appearance of Carly Fiorina, his party’s only female White House contender.
It’s a new test for the candidacy of the brash-talking Trump, whose standing in opinion polls has surged despite a series of comments that might well have doomed a traditional politician.
Democrat Hillary Rodham Clinton said the billionaire real-estate mogul “seems to delight in insulting women every chance he gets.”
READ: Trump’s sexist remark turns Republican party against him
Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush dismissed Trump’s latest comments as “small and inappropriate.” And Fiorina, the former technology executive and target of Trump’s latest insult, suggested she was “getting under his skin.”
Adding to the intrigue was news Thursday night that the next Republican debate will now feature both Fiorina and Trump. Debate host CNN announced that the candidates scheduled to meet for Wednesday’s evening affair will include Fiorina, whose weak polling numbers kept her out of the first debate. But a bump in the polls and an aggressive lobbying effort persuaded CNN to broaden its participation criteria, a coup for Fiorina and Republican officials eager to feature the party’s only woman candidate in the nationally televised clash.
Fiorina isn’t expected to get as much airtime as Trump, the billionaire reality TV star who will be positioned front and center when the candidates meet at the Reagan Presidential Library in California. The undisputed leader of the crowded field in early national polls, Trump is generally considered the biggest reason why the first Republican presidential debate set a ratings record last month for Fox News Channel.
The first primary votes aren’t until next year and the presidential election remains more than a year off, but Republican leaders have been unnerved by the surge of Trump and his incendiary comments about Mexican immigrants and a popular female Fox News host, as the party has pushed to court more Hispanic and women voters.
In some ways, Thursday was a day no different from others in an unpredictable 2016 presidential primary campaign, a messy contest in which Trump has emerged as a dominant and divisive figure. But the day also featured an escalation of criticism from Trump’s detractors in both parties, who seem be multiplying.
The spark was an interview published Wednesday by Rolling Stone, in which Trump said Fiorina’s face would make her unelectable. The magazine quoted Trump as saying of the former technology executive: “Look at that face! Would anyone vote for that? Can you imagine that, the face of our next president?”
The chorus of anti-Trump Republicans now includes Bush, Jindal, Sen. Rand Paul, former New York Gov. George Pataki and retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson, who is running second to Trump in several early polls and challenged Trump’s Christian faith this week.
In a speech at the National Press Club in Washington, Jindal called Trump an “egomaniacal madman who has no principles,” describing him as a “carnival act.”
At a rally in Columbus, Ohio, Clinton took a swipe at Trump.
“There is one particular candidate who just seems to delight in insulting women every chance he gets,” Clinton told a cheering crowd of supporters. “I have to say, if he emerges I would love to debate him.”
The Fiorina remark is only the latest comment directed at women that’s led to criticism of Trump. After the first Republican debate, during which Fox News’ Megyn Kelly asked him about past derogatory comments about women, Trump launched a series of insults at the TV anchor — including telling CNN that Kelly had “blood coming out of her eyes, blood coming out of her wherever” during the debate.
Trump tried to paper over his remarks about Fiorina in an interview with CNN, saying he wasn’t talking about her appearance but her “persona.”
In a subsequent interview on ABC’s “The View,” he said, “I do have a very big heart,” and then he offered a message directly to women: “I want to say that I cherish women, and I will protect women, and I will take care of women, and I have great respect for women.”
He said his wife and daughter have encouraged him to speak more about “women’s health issues, because they know how strongly and committed I am to it.”
Bush, who has emerged as a leading Trump critic in recent weeks, came to Fiorina’s defense Thursday. He tweeted that the “demeaning remarks are small and inappropriate for anyone, much less a presidential candidate.” ”Carly & country deserve better. Enough,” Bush wrote.
Fiorina declined to address Trump’s latest insult directly when asked about it during an appearance on Fox News. “But maybe, just maybe, I’m getting under his skin a little bit,” she said, “because I am climbing in the polls.”
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