Republican presidential candidate Carly Fiorina struck back at a Fox News anchor who was co-moderating Thursday’s GOP “undercard” debate for challenging candidate Rick Santorum’s commitment to the fight against abortion.
During the debate, co-moderator Martha MacCallum asked Rick Santorum why he did not attend an annual anti-abortion march last week in Washington, D.C.
Santorum, an outspoken advocate for socially conservative policies, defended himself by saying he had attended the rally “for about 25 years” prior and that he missed this year’s due to bad weather and scheduling conflicts with his campaign schedule.
“We have an election going on and there was some snow coming,” Santorum said. “And so I decided that maybe it would be better for me to get out and do some campaigning.”
He also said throughout his career in public office that he was “proud” to have sponsored and passed anti-abortion legislation. Fiorina chimed in to defend Santorum.
“Can I just say we’ve been talking tonight about a lot of issues and we’ve also been talking about the fact that the game is rigged and frankly the media has a lot to do with that,” she said. “It is outrageous, frankly, that Fox News and you [MacCallum] would question the pro-life credentials of Rick Santorum. That is outrageous.”
Earlier in the debate, Santorum had also lashed out at the news media for, he said, undermining the campaigns of lower-polling candidates.
