Chris Matthews: 'You Called Hillary Clinton a Liar. Why?' Fiorina: 'Because It's True.

Immediately after her performance in Thursday night's first Fox News debate, former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina faced off with MSNBC's Chris Matthews in a contentious debate over her use of the word "liar" to describe Hillary Clinton.

"You called Hillary Clinton a liar tonight on a number of occasions. Do you want to explain why you would use such a, almost end of conversation term for your possible opponent next year?"

"Because it's true." Fiorina replied. "You know, one of the things that I think people are tired of in politics, and Republicans do it as well, is we don't use common-sense language. We talk in sanitized sound bites. I don't, but most politicians do."

She went on to add, "By any standard common-sense measure, Hillary Clinton has lied, about Benghazi, about her emails and about her server."

Matthews, looking a little stunned, pressed: "You really think that's a way to engage in a debate, to call your opponent a liar? I'm astounded by that judgment of yours."

Fiorina clarified, "I didn't say she lied about everything. I was very specific. Very fact-based."

The two sparred briefly before Fiorina laid out her case, pointing out many of the contradictions she sees between Clinton's actions and her rhetoric.

Finally, Matthews asked for a "fine point" on where Clinton lied on Benghazi.

Without hesitating, Fiorina delivered the following:

"It's very clear from all the data, it's very clear from the emails, that she, that the president of the United States, that the secretary of state, and that the military understood this was a purposeful, terrorist attack on the anniversary of 9/11 and they understood it while it was going on."

She continued, "So tell me then, why would you talk about, the next day, from the State Department, why would you talk about a video? Why would explain that this is not America? Why would stand over the bodies of the fallen and say it again? Why not come out and say this was a purposeful terrorist attack on our embassy, four brave Americans were killed and we're going to seek retribution?"

Matthews ultimately closed the interview saying, "Thank you Carly Fiorina, I see why you stood out tonight."

After Fiorina left, and Matthews continued the debate over the topic of calling Hillary Clinton a liar with Joe Scarborough. At times the conversation between Matthews and Scarborough got very heated.

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