Trump praises debate rivals, CNN: ‘I was very impressed’

Carly Fiorina confronted Donald Trump in the second Republican debate on Wednesday, September 16, after his recent comments about her face – watch here.

GWEN IFILL: Carly Fiorina, a former Hewlett-Packard CEO who was relegated to the second-tier debate last time, seized the moment to slash at Trump while presenting herself as a leader. “There was nobody that did poorly”. On Thursday, he also cited a Time Magazine poll that said he won the debate as proof of his performance. It’s not about me, it’s not about the big personalities on that stage last night. She took on Trump and called him out to massive applause on his previous personal comment about her when he said that she could never be president because “Look at that face”.

“I think women all over this country heard very clearly what Mr. Trump said”, Fiorina said. During Wednesday’s debate, though, he said she had a “beautiful face”.

HILLARY RODHAM CLINTON, Democratic Presidential Candidate: Well, I’m sure I’ll see you at the next one.

“He wasn’t as dynamic as in the first debate but he didn’t make any serious mistakes, either”, Lokken said.

“More energy tonight, I like that”, Trump said to laughter.

“I’ve worked every day of my life”. And then they go into this debate, and there was split screens all over the place. “I’m very happy”. Vince McMahon would’ve loved it, because that was a WWE kind of a thing. “But it’s a little bit different, when a bombastic guy like Donald Trump does it. It really had a whole extra dimension”.

For much of the night, CNN moderators tried to keep up with the side squabbles between candidates in between their own debate questions.

CNN anchor Jake Tapper, the debate’s main host, spent a large part of the night goading candidates into sparring, something Trump seems better at than anyone. I’m very concerned about him – having him in charge of the nuclear weapons, because I think his response, his – his visceral response to attack people on their appearance – short, tall, fat, ugly – my goodness, that happened in junior high.

But also like in the first debate, it wasn’t Gov. Chris Christie talking about the shore resort in his home state. And even with 11 candidates on the stage, three hours is about an hour too long.