Carly Fiorina targets Trump over 'offensive' Megyn Kelly comments

Only female Republican in the race says women are 'horrified' by the remarks

Republican presidential candidate Carly Fiorina speaks during a pre-debate forum at the Quicken Loans Arena, Thursday, Aug. 6, 2015, in Cleveland. Seven of the candidates have not qualified for the primetime debate. (AP Photo/John Minchillo) (AP Photo/John Minchillo)

Republican presidential candidate Carly Fiorina is taking on Donald Trump over his 'offensive' comments about Fox News anchor Megyn Kelly.

Fiorina, the only woman in the race to be the Republican nominee, said Trump's insinuation that Kelly's tough questions during Thursday's debate were a result of menstruation was "completely inappropriate and offensive".

The day after Kelly grilled Trump over sexist remarks he made in the past, Trump said: "You could see there was blood coming out of her eyes. Blood coming out of her wherever."

The line, which has been taken to refer to menstruation, has badly hurt the Trump campaign; the candidate was uninvited from the RedState Gathering, a conservative event featuring leading Republicans, and his leading strategist Roger Stone resigned after a public spat.

Trump claims his comments have been misunderstood, but former Hewlett-Packard executive Fiorina, universally considered the winner of the earlier debate for outside-the-top-10 candidates, said: "Women understood that comment. And yes, it is offensive.

Speaking on CNN's State of the Union programme, Fiorina said: "I started out as a secretary. And as I made my way up in the business world, a male-dominated business world, I've had lots of men imply that, um -- I was unfit for decision-making because maybe I was having my period."

She also featured on another Sunday politics show, Face The Nation on CBS, on which she said: "I think women of all kinds are really sort of horrified by this."

On both shows she repeated that Thursday's debate and the fallout have revealed Trump to be thin-skinned, something which a President should never be.

And appearing on Face The Nation, he said he would be "phenomenal to the women."

He added: "I'm very much into the whole thing of helping people and helping women, women’s health issues are such a big thing to me."