GOP Presidential Candidate Carly Fiorina Accused of Ambushing Preschool Field Trip // Used Children as Props at Anti-Abortion Speech Without Parents' Permission

Carly Fiorina's presidential campaign gained some negative press today after she was accused to "ambushing" a preschool field trip and using those 4- and 5-year-old kids as props for an anti-abortion speech at a Des Mines botanical garden:

The alleged ambush occurred when Fiorina hosted a “right to life” forum at the Greater Des Moines botanical garden. Entering the rally, before a crowd of about 60 people, she directed around 15 young children towards a makeshift stage.

The problem, one parent said, was that the children’s parents had not given Fiorina permission to have their children sit with her – in front of a huge banner bearing the image of an unborn foetus – while she talked about harvesting organs from aborted babies.

“The kids went there to see the plants,” said Chris Beck, the father of four-year-old Chatham, one of the children Fiorina appeared with. “She ambushed my son’s field trip.”

Needless to say, Chris Beck will not be caucusing for Fiorina in two weeks!

Fiorina's campaign issued an initial response to this story:

“We were happy that these children chose to come to Carly’s event with their adult supervisor.”

Her deputy campaign manager Sarah Isgur later expanded on the campaign's earlier comments:

It’s true. Carly has kids at her speeches on a regular basis. Last week, it was a kindergarten class in Holstein. Week before that it was a girl scout troop at Exeter…and another one in Windham. In Des Moines yesterday, a group of preschoolers along with their parents and teachers followed Carly right into the event she was speaking at for Iowa Right to Life. Earlier, she’d run into the kids in the Botanical Gardens and watched the koi with them for a while. I guess the kids must have thought she was pretty neat because then their teachers and parents and the kids all followed Carly into the event complete with Carly stickers. 

So to all the left wingers who think they found their big scoop — Carly Loves Kids! Carly is Pro Life!

It's possible that some of these kids' parents were there to give Fiorina's campaign and the media permission to allow these children at Fiorina's event and to appear in the papers with her, but obviously not all of the kids' parents were aware that this field trip would turn into a media event.

Personally, I would be pissed if my kid attended My Learning Safari and his teachers spent the afternoon with my son at an anti-abortion political event.