Former technology executive Carly Fiorina on Friday morning warned New Hampshire voters—and Republican voters in general—of the looming specter of the “network of George Stephanopoulous” after she missed the cut for ABC’s Republican presidential debate.
In a blog post published on Medium on Friday, titled “The game is rigged,” Fiorina wrote that ABC and the Republican National Committee were “caving to pressure” from establishment candidates who were “afraid to debate” her.
“They don’t want your votes to count. They don’t want your voice to be heard,” Fiorina wrote. “The network of George Stephanopoulos wants to tell you to sit down and shut up and elect Hillary Clinton.”
Fiorina did not meet ABC’s criteria to qualify for the debate, as she did not place in the top three in the Iowa caucuses, among the top six in an average of national polls or in the top six in an average of New Hampshire polls. TPM’s PollTracker average shows Fiorina in 8th place in New Hampshire with 2.9 percent support.
The former Hewlett-Packard executive repeated her critique of ABC as a mouthpiece for anchor George Stephanopoulos during a Friday phone interview with MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.”
“What this debate debacle shows is that votes and delegates don’t matter that much anymore,” she said. “What matters are back room deals between the RNC and the ABC about who will get on.”
She also suggested Stephanopoulos, who served as a senior adviser to former President Bill Clinton’s administration and campaign, was to blame.
“This is George Stephanopoulos’ network after all. So maybe George doesn’t want to see Hillary Clinton ever have to debate,” Fiorina added.
Stephanopoulos donated $75,000 to the Clinton Foundation between 2012-2014. When the donations were made public in May he said that he will no longer moderate presidential debates.
Fiorina announced her campaign in May 2015 with an exclusive interview with Stephanopoulos on ABC’s “Good Morning America,” where she was all smiles about the coming campaign.
