Carly Fiorina: I Both Did and Did Not Meet Vladimir Putin In A Green Room

In last night’s Republican debate, questions were ignored, data were fudged, lies were lied. No lie was more compellingly told, however, than Carly Fiorina’s applause line that she had met Russian president Vladimir Putin in a private meeting—not a green room.

In an effort to distinguish herself from Donald Trump, who had said he was “stablemates” with Putin on a recent 60 Minutes, Fiorina launched into the following:

“Mr. Trump fancies himself a very good negotiator, and I accept that he’s done a lot of good deals. So Mr. Trump ought to know that we should not speak to people from a position of weakness,” Fiorina said. “One of the reasons I’ve said that I would not be talking to Vladimir Putin right now, although I have met him as well—not in a green room for a show, but in a private meeting [applause]… is because we are speaking to him from a position of weakness brought on by this administration.”

But on a September 21 appearance on The Tonight Show, Fiorina said exactly the opposite:

“I met [Putin] in Beijing, we were in sort of a green room setting actually, the two of us were giving a speech, each of us were giving a speech at a major economic conference called AIPAC. And so the two of us were sitting in a chair sort of like this, about this close for 45 minutes before his speech and before mine.”

I would love to hear more about this private meeting she had with the leader of Russia in the past month and a half while on the campaign trail. Did Fiorina invite him to her campaign bus? Did she take a secrete state trip to Moscow even though she is not affiliated with the U.S. government? Let us know!