--- title: Carly Fiorina: Donald Trump Should Step Down as Nominee description: Carly Fiorina called for Donald Trump to drop out of the election, saying he has "manifestly failed" at the responsibilities of a nominee canonical: https://time.com/4523922/carly-fiorina-donald-trump-mike-pence/ author: Katie Reilly article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-10-08T16:13:49.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-19T07:45:30.856Z article:section: Politics og:title: Carly Fiorina: Donald Trump Should 'Step Aside' as Presidential Nominee og:description: She called for vice presidential candidate Mike Pence to take his place og:url: https://time.com/4523922/carly-fiorina-donald-trump-mike-pence/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt623c94e80cfc1f90/6988a93c8e06012089467c7a/fiorina.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2560 og:image:height: 1440 og:image:alt: Presumptive Republican Nominee Donald Trump Speaks At The Road To Majority Conference og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Carly Fiorina: Donald Trump Should 'Step Aside' as Presidential Nominee twitter:description: She called for vice presidential candidate Mike Pence to take his place twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt623c94e80cfc1f90/6988a93c8e06012089467c7a/fiorina.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Carly Fiorina: Donald Trump Should 'Step Aside' as Presidential Nominee > Sponsored content. 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Brief is TIME's Washington newsletter, written by senior correspondent Philip Elliott. It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. It reaches 85,000 subscribers with a 37.0% open rate as of August 2026. #### 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.  by [Katie Reilly](https://time.com/author/katie-reilly/)  ## Katie Reilly Oct 8, 2016 4:13 PM UTC  Carly Fiorina speaks during Faith and Freedom Coalitions Road to Majority conference in Washington, D.C., June 10, 2016. Carly Fiorina speaks during Faith and Freedom Coalitions Road to Majority conference in Washington, D.C., June 10, 2016. Andrew Harrer—Bloomberg/Getty Images  by [Katie Reilly](https://time.com/author/katie-reilly/)  ## Katie Reilly Oct 8, 2016 4:13 PM UTC Former Republican presidential candidate Carly Fiorina called for Donald Trump to drop out of the presidential race, saying he has “manifestly failed” at carrying out the responsibilities of a party nominee. “Donald Trump does not represent me or my party,” she said in a [Facebook post](https://www.facebook.com/CarlyFiorina/posts/10158400207515206) on Saturday. “I understand the responsibility of Republicans to support their nominee. Our nominee has weighty responsibilities as well. Donald Trump has manifestly failed in these responsibilities.” Her statement comes the day after [the Washington _Post_](https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-recorded-having-extremely-lewd-conversation-about-women-in-2005/2016/10/07/3b9ce776-8cb4-11e6-bf8a-3d26847eeed4%5Fstory.html?tid=sm%5Ftw) published a [video from 2005](http://time.com/4523755/donald-trump-leaked-tape-impact/) in which Trump boasts about hitting on a married woman and groping women. “And when you’re a star, they let you do it,” Trump said in the video. “You can do anything.” He [apologized](http://time.com/4523851/donald-trump-apology-access-hollywood/) in a video message released early Saturday morning, saying the comments don’t reflect who he is. He called the tape a “distraction” from important issues. “Today I ask Donald Trump to step aside and for the RNC to replace him with Gov. Mike Pence,” Fiorina said in her Facebook post, maintaining that Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton is “unfit” to be president. Fiorina has called out Trump for his comments about women previously. After he [criticized her appearance](http://fortune.com/2015/09/10/trump-on-fiorina-look-at-that-face-would-anyone-vote-for-that/) in an interview last year—”Look at that face! Would anybody vote for that?”—she fired back at him during a primary debate, when asked about his remarks. “I think women all over this country heard very clearly what Mr. Trump said,” she said. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4523922/carly-fiorina-donald-trump-mike-pence/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4523922/carly-fiorina-donald-trump-mike-pence/"},"headline":"Carly Fiorina: Donald Trump Should 'Step Aside' as Presidential Nominee","datePublished":"2016-10-08T16:13:49.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-19T07:45:30.856Z","description":"She called for vice presidential candidate Mike Pence to take his place","url":"https://time.com/4523922/carly-fiorina-donald-trump-mike-pence/","keywords":["2016 Election","2016 Election","Donald Trump"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt623c94e80cfc1f90/6988a93c8e06012089467c7a/fiorina.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Katie Reilly","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/katie-reilly/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt623c94e80cfc1f90/6988a93c8e06012089467c7a/fiorina.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Presumptive Republican Nominee Donald Trump Speaks At The Road To Majority Conference","caption":"Carly Fiorina speaks during Faith and Freedom Coalitions Road to Majority conference in Washington, D.C., June 10, 2016.","creditText":"Andrew Harrer—Bloomberg/Getty Images","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/2016-election/","name":"2016 Election"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4523922/carly-fiorina-donald-trump-mike-pence/","name":"Carly Fiorina: Donald Trump Should 'Step Aside' as Presidential Nominee"}}]}] ```