--- title: Demoratic Debate: Hillary Clinton Knocked Carly Fiorina On Paid Family Leave description: Hillary Clinton criticized Republican rival Carly Fiorina's stance against paid family leave at the Democratic debate. canonical: https://time.com/4072672/hillary-clinton-carly-fiorina-family-leave/ author: Tessa Berenson article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-10-14T03:08:36.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-22T11:46:28.454Z article:section: Politics og:title: How Clinton Knocked Fiorina on Paid Family Leave og:description: "I’m surprised she says that." og:url: https://time.com/4072672/hillary-clinton-carly-fiorina-family-leave/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt90920e7a04aaf3f4/6988682d5f570f5245b1dd60/299eb767749e45b4aa4907201659809f-0.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: DEM 2016 Debate og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: How Clinton Knocked Fiorina on Paid Family Leave twitter:description: "I’m surprised she says that." twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt90920e7a04aaf3f4/6988682d5f570f5245b1dd60/299eb767749e45b4aa4907201659809f-0.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # How Hillary Clinton Knocked Carly Fiorina on Paid Family Leave  by [Tessa Berenson](https://time.com/author/tessa-berenson/)  ## Tessa Berenson Oct 14, 2015 3:08 AM UTC  Hillary Rodham Clinton speaks during the CNN Democratic presidential debate, on Oct. 13, 2015, in Las Vegas. Hillary Rodham Clinton speaks during the CNN Democratic presidential debate, on Oct. 13, 2015, in Las Vegas.John Locher—AP  by [Tessa Berenson](https://time.com/author/tessa-berenson/)  ## Tessa Berenson Oct 14, 2015 3:08 AM UTC Hillary Clinton criticized Republican rival Carly Fiorina over paid family leave at the Democratic debate Tuesday. CNN moderator Dana Bash asked Clinton to respond directly to Fiorina, the only other woman running on either side and an opponent of federal paid family leave, which she says would provide a disincentive for businesses to hire women. “I’m surprised she says that because California has had a paid leave program for a number of years … and it has not had the ill effects that the Republicans are always saying it will have,” Clinton said. “We can design a system and pay for it that does not put the burden on small business.” Clinton then took it one step further, broadening the argument to hit the whole Republican field and zero in on Fiorina’s attacks on Planned Parenthood. “They don’t mind having big government to interfere with a woman’s right to choose and to take down Planned Parenthood,” Clinton said of Republicans. “I’m sick of it. We should not be paralyzed by the Republicans and their constant refrain of ‘big government this’ and ‘big government that’ … I know we can afford it because we will make the wealthy pay for it,” she said of a federal family and medical leave program. **Read Next:** [_Clinton Says Fiorina Shouldn’t Get a Pass Because She’s a Woman_](http://time.com/4070291/hillary-clinton-carly-fiorina-planned-parenthood/) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4072672/hillary-clinton-carly-fiorina-family-leave/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4072672/hillary-clinton-carly-fiorina-family-leave/"},"headline":"How Hillary Clinton Knocked Carly Fiorina on Paid Family Leave","datePublished":"2015-10-14T03:08:36.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T11:46:28.454Z","description":"Hillary Clinton criticized Republican rival Carly Fiorina's stance against paid family leave at the Democratic debate.","url":"https://time.com/4072672/hillary-clinton-carly-fiorina-family-leave/","keywords":["Debates","Hillary Clinton","2016 Election topic","Carly Fiorina","Democratic debate"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt90920e7a04aaf3f4/6988682d5f570f5245b1dd60/299eb767749e45b4aa4907201659809f-0.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Tessa Berenson","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/tessa-berenson/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt90920e7a04aaf3f4/6988682d5f570f5245b1dd60/299eb767749e45b4aa4907201659809f-0.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"DEM 2016 Debate","caption":"DEM 2016 Debate","creditText":"John Locher—AP","representativeOfPage":true}],"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/debates/","name":"Debates"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4072672/hillary-clinton-carly-fiorina-family-leave/","name":"How Hillary Clinton Knocked Carly Fiorina on Paid Family Leave"}}]}] ```