Carly Fiorina hits back at Donald Trump over HP record

US Republican presidential candidates embroiled in war of words over Fiorina's tenure as HP CEO

Carly Fiorina has defended her time as HP chief, after rival Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump made a dig at her record.

When asked his opinion on his female counterparts, Trump was reported as saying: "She's a very nice woman, she got fired, she did a terrible job at Hewlett Packard......other than that she's a very nice woman."

Speaking to news channel ABC News, and sipping a gigantic soda at the Iowa State Fair, Fiorina said the results of her leadership were 'clear'.

Fiorina, who presided over the $25bn (£15.95bn) HP/Compaq merger in 2001 and left in 2006, said: "I haven't spent all my life in politics - I'm a proven leader with a track record in problem solving. Donald Trump's gone after just about everybody. He's entitled to, obviously.

"But what I would say is that Hewlett-Packard was a publicly traded company, so the results are there for everybody to see. You can't hide them. You can't fudge the numbers, and the results are clear.

She added: "I led the business from about $44bn to almost $90bn. We quadrupled the top line revenue growth rate in the middle of the biggest technology recession in 25 years. We tripled innovation to more than 11 patents a day. We went from lagging behind to leading in every product category in every market segment. We saved 80,000 jobs and HP now employs 300,000 people. I'm going to run with that."