Fiorina: ‘Sexist’ to treat me as only VP material

GOP presidential candidate Carly Fiorina says its “sexist” to only treat her as a potential vice presidential contender.

Fiorina criticized those who float her name as a potential VP because she’s a woman, adding that she is as qualified to be president as any of the GOP’s male hopefuls.

{mosads}“The people who say that I am in this for vice president — that’s sexist,” Fiorina said Wednesday on the “Laura Ingraham Show.”

“I’m in this to win this job,” she added. “No one talks about the men being veep. I think I’m qualified to do the job. I have a track record of delivering results.

“I am as qualified as any candidate running,” she added.

Fiorina also argued that her Oval Office bid is based on ideas rather than gender.

“I am not running because I am a woman,” she said. “I have never made gender an issue in this campaign.”

Fiorina’s remarks follow CNN’s announcement on Tuesday that it is amending its criteria for the second GOP presidential debate on Sept. 16.

The move is nearly certain to help Fiorina, who was likely to be excluded from the news network’s main debate based on the previous rules.

“There’s only one candidate who has moved to the top 10,” Fiorina said on Wednesday, referring to national polls. “That’s me.

“I earned this place by virtue of my position in the polls,” the former Hewlett-Packard CEO added. “You can say the rules are the rules. We also happen to be a nation that believes this is a Republican primary, not a media primary.”

CNN was previously planning on setting its main-stage debate field based on an average of national poll samplings from July 16 through Sept. 10.

It is now also measuring an average of American polls between Aug. 6 and Sept. 10 after taking heat for Fiorina’s possible exclusion from the main debate stage.

Fiorina has made a dramatic surge in national support after the first GOP presidential debate in August.

The ex-technology executive said on Wednesday that she is thankful for those who lobbied CNN on her behalf.

“A lot of listeners helped and we’re grateful to them,” Fiorina told Ingraham. “We had literally thousands and thousands of people who thought that the game was rigged and that the deck was stacked.

“I also thought the Fox News rules were crazy, too,” she said of the first GOP debate, where she was relegated to the “undercard” debate for candidates outside the top 10.

The latest RealClearPolitics average of samplings has Fiorina ranked seventh out of the 17 GOP White House hopefuls.

— This story was updated at 11:04 a.m.