Carly Fiorina keeps changing her story about meeting Vladimir Putin

Carly Fiorina at the GOP Presidential Debate In Milwaukee.
(Image credit: Scott Olson/Getty Images)

Carly Fiorina is apparently having a difficult time recalling exactly where and how she met Russian President Vladimir Putin, going as far as to directly contradict her earlier story during Tuesday's Fox Business Network Republican debate. Countering Donald Trump, who bragged that he and Putin "were stablemates on 60 Minutes and that show went pretty well," Fiorina inserted that, "I have met [Putin] as well, not in a green room for a show, but in a private meeting."

Which is all well and good, except that Fiorina has previously reported that her meeting with Putin had been in a green room, before a speech at an economic conference in Beijing in 2001.

"I met him in Beijing. We were in sort of a green room setting, actually," Fiorina said on The Tonight Show in September. She elaborated that she was sitting next to him for about 45 minutes before their speeches and "would describe him as a formidable adversary."

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What's more, Fiorina even admired Putin in her 2001 conference speech: "Hewlett-Packard has been at the center of a lot of change in our 62-year history. But President Putin was elected president in the first democratic transition in Russia in 1,000 years. Talk about giving new meaning to the word 'invent,'" she said at the time.

ABC confirmed with Fiorina's campaign after the debate that no private meeting actually occurred in Beijing. "Yes she met him in a green room, but not in a green room before a show. It was before a conference," Press Secretary Anna Epstein said.

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Jeva Lange

Jeva Lange was the executive editor at TheWeek.com. She formerly served as The Week's deputy editor and culture critic. She is also a contributor to Screen Slate, and her writing has appeared in The New York Daily News, The Awl, Vice, and Gothamist, among other publications. Jeva lives in New York City. Follow her on Twitter.