Republican presidential candidates Donald Trump and Carly Fiorina clashed on their business records Wednesday night during the second Republican presidential debate.
{mosads}”She can’t run any of my companies. That’s all I can say,” Trump said, attacking Fiorina, the former Hewlett-Packard CEO, saying her tenure turned out “to be a catastrophe.”
Fiorina fought back hard, arguing that Trump mishandled his casino companies and was forced to file for bankruptcy four times — allegations that Trump vehemently denies.
“You know, there are a lot of us Americans that believe that we are going to have trouble someday paying back the interest on our debt because politicians have run out mountains of debt using other people’s money,” Fiorina said.
“That is in fact precisely the way you ran your casinos,” she said looking at Trump. “You ran it mountains of debt as well as losses using other people’s money and forced to file for bankruptcy — not once, not twice, four times. … Why should we trust you to manage the finances of this nation any differently than you managed the finances of your casinos?”
Fiorina defended her business record, arguing that she helped double HP’s size and paved the way for the tech giant’s long-term growth despite the board firing her.
New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie attempted to silence Trump and Fiorina’s spat.
“The fact is that we don’t want to hear about your careers, back and forth and volleying back and forth who did well and poorly,” Christie said. “You’re both successful people. Congratulations. You know who is not so successful? The middle class people. Let’s stop the childish back and forth between the two of you.”