--- title: Carly Fiorina "Very Satisfied" With GOP Debate Performance description: Carly Fiorina had a strong showing at the Republican debate on CNN Wednesday night, and she knows it canonical: https://time.com/4038220/carly-fiorina-republican-debate-performance/ author: Tessa Berenson article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-09-17T12:58:28.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-19T07:41:49.125Z article:section: Politics og:title: Carly Fiorina "Very Satisfied" With GOP Debate Performance og:description: Carly Fiorina had a strong showing at the Republican debate on CNN Wednesday night, and she knows it og:url: https://time.com/4038220/carly-fiorina-republican-debate-performance/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Carly Fiorina "Very Satisfied" With GOP Debate Performance twitter:description: Carly Fiorina had a strong showing at the Republican debate on CNN Wednesday night, and she knows it twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # Carly Fiorina "Very Satisfied" With GOP Debate Performance > Sponsored content. 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It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. ## Video: CNN 2016 Presidential Debate: Carly Fiorina's Best Moments [Watch (HLS stream): CNN 2016 Presidential Debate: Carly Fiorina's Best Moments](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/dAR7eWBi.m3u8) (2:17)  _Published 2015-09-17. CNN 2016 Presidential Debate: Carly Fiorina's Best Moments_  by [Tessa Berenson](https://time.com/author/tessa-berenson/)  ## Tessa Berenson Sep 17, 2015 12:58 PM UTC  by [Tessa Berenson](https://time.com/author/tessa-berenson/)  ## Tessa Berenson Sep 17, 2015 12:58 PM UTC Carly Fiorina had a strong showing at the Republican debate on CNN Wednesday night, and she knows it. “I was very satisfied,” Fiorina[ told ABC’s Good Morning America](http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/carly-fiorina-satisfied-gop-debate/story?id=33825017) of her performance. “When I went into the debate, almost half the audience didn’t know my name, and I introduced myself successfully.” During the debate, Fiorina laid out detailed foreign policy visions, made an impassioned speech against Planned Parenthood and [sparred with Donald Trump](http://time.com/4037757/donald-trump-carly-fiorina-republican-debate/?xid=homepage) over comments he had made about her looks. The former Hewlett-Packard CEO had worked her way into the primetime slot after surging in the polls following her first performance in the Fox undercard debate in August. Read Next: [_Carly Fiorina Takes the Debate Stage Swinging_](http://time.com/4037858/republican-debate-carly-fiorina/?xid=homepage) ## Transcript In an interview last week in Rolling Stone Magazine Donald Trump said the following about you, " Look at that face, would anyone vote for that? Can you imagine that, the face of our next president ?" You know it's interesting to me, Mr. Trump said that he heard Mr. Bush very clearly. And what Mr. Bush said. I think women all over this country heard very clearly what Mr. Trump said. [ APPLAUSE ] I think she's got a beautiful face and I think she's a beautiful woman. As regards Planned Parenthood, anyone who has watched this videotape, I dare Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, to watch these tapes. Watch a fully formed fetus, on the table, it's heart beating, it's legs kicking, while someone says: We have to keep it alive to harvest it's brain. This is about the character of our nation, and if we will not stand up [ APPLAUSE ] and force President Obama to veto this bill Shame on us. Immigration did not come up in 2016 because Mr. Trump brought it up. We talked about it in 2012. We talked about it in 2008. We talked about it in 2004. Not with this intensity. We have been talking about it for 25 years. Ms. Fiorina. This is why people are tired of politicians. Ms. Fiorina. We're going to cut [ INAUDIBLE ] When you challenge the status quo, you make enemies. I made a few. Steve Jobs told me that when he called me the day I was fired Fired, to say, hey, been there, done that, twice. It's also true that the man that led my firing, Tom Perkins, Thank you, Ms Fiorina. Just took out a full page ad in the New York Times to say he was wrong, I was right. Thank you. I was a terrific CEO. The board was dysfunctional and he thinks I will make a magnificent president of the United States. Thank you Ms Fiorina. [ APPLAUSE ] [ APPLAUSE ] Have you met Vladimir Putin? I wouldn't talk to him at all. We've talked way too much to him. What I would do, immediately, is begin rebuilding the six fleet, I would begin rebuilding the missile defense program in Poland, I would conduct regular aggressive military exercises in the Baltic states. I would probably send a few thousand more troops into Germany. Vladimir Putin would get the message. Would you feel comfortable with Donald Trump's finger on the nuclear codes? That's not for me to answer. It's for the voters of this country to answer, and I have a lot of faith in the common sense and good judgment of the voters of the United States of America. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4038220/carly-fiorina-republican-debate-performance/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4038220/carly-fiorina-republican-debate-performance/"},"headline":"Carly Fiorina \"Very Satisfied\" With GOP Debate Performance","datePublished":"2015-09-17T12:58:28.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-19T07:41:49.125Z","description":"Carly Fiorina had a strong showing at the Republican debate on CNN Wednesday night, and she knows it","url":"https://time.com/4038220/carly-fiorina-republican-debate-performance/","keywords":["2016 Election","2016 Election","Carly Fiorina","Republican debate"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Tessa Berenson","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/tessa-berenson/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/2016-election/","name":"2016 Election"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4038220/carly-fiorina-republican-debate-performance/","name":"Carly Fiorina \"Very Satisfied\" With GOP Debate Performance"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"CNN 2016 Presidential Debate: Carly Fiorina's Best Moments","description":"CNN 2016 Presidential Debate: Carly Fiorina's Best Moments","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/dAR7eWBi/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2015-09-17T03:23:25.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/dAR7eWBi.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/4038220/carly-fiorina-republican-debate-performance/","duration":"PT2M17S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/4038220/carly-fiorina-republican-debate-performance/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```