Republican presidential candidate and former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina suggested Friday that some of her rival contenders and a prominent journalist actively lobbied for her exclusion from Saturday night's GOP primary debate in New Hampshire.
"I have been saying all along in this election the game is rigged, and now you see it in plain day," Fiorina said on MSNBC's "Morning Joe," according to Newsmax. "I know that there were certain candidates lobbying hard at ABC and RNC to keep me off the stage."
ABC News on Thursday announced its criteria to qualify for the debate, and Fiorina didn't make the cut since she failed to place in the top three in the Iowa caucuses, the top six in an average of national polls or the top six of an average of New Hampshire polls.
Only seven candidates will appear on stage - real estate mogul Donald Trump, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and Ohio Gov. John Kasich.
Fiorina argued that her seventh-place finish in the Iowa caucuses - better than Kasich and Christie - should have earned her a spot on stage, according to The Washington Times.
"What this debate debacle shows it that votes and delegates actually don't matter that much anymore," she said. "What matters are back room deals between the RNC and ABC about who's going to get on."
Cruz and Carson, along with 2012 GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich and New Hampshire Republican Sen. Kelly Ayotte, have all called for Fiorina's inclusion.
But Fiorina questioned why Rubio, Bush, Kasich and Christie haven't spoken up. "Some of them lobbied actively not to have me on that stage. You know what that tells me, they are afraid to debate me. So I don't know how they can tell the voters of New Hampshire they are ready to debate Hillary Clinton," she told Boston Herald Radio, according to The Boston Herald. "People know this is ridiculous. The voters of Iowa have voted, we had an actual vote and I beat Christie, I beat Kasich, I tied Bush in number of delegates, and they are on the stage and I'm not. Now what does that say to the voters of Iowa? More importantly, what does that say to the voters of New Hampshire who actually think it's their job to pick a president. They don't think establishment politicians and establishment media executives get to decide who they hear from."
She went on to suggest that even ABC News chief political correspondent and Clinton supporter George Stephanopoulos was involved in the decision. "This is George Stephanopoulos' network after all," she said. "So maybe George doesn't want to see Hillary Clinton ever have to debate. But it's a rigged deal. It's a back room deal and meanwhile, I think, the voters of New Hampshire believe that it's their job to pick presidents, vet candidates and win on the field so I'll keep talking for them."
