SIMI VALLEY, California — She savaged his business record. She dismissed him as an entertainer. She undermined him with the most withering one-liner of the night.
But perhaps the most notable achievement in Carly Fiorina’s dispatching of Donald Trump during Wednesday’s Republican presidential debate was that her barbs often seemed to leave the loudmouth billionaire speechless — and seething.
For a candidate known to ridicule his rivals with reckless abandon, Trump struggled all night to respond to Fiorina’s criticism — sometimes countering with cringe-inducing condescension, other times shriveling into an uncharacteristically quiet display of head-shaking and tongue-biting. He appeared to reveal a weakness that could be especially damaging to any Republican presidential nominee next year: Trump doesn’t know what to do when women challenge him.
And Fiorina, the former CEO of Hewlett-Packard who prides herself on a career of busting up boys clubs, came prepared to exploit Trump’s vulnerability.
Read the rest of the stage showdown here
