Sigh.

Carly Fiorina is a newly-announced presidential candidate for the Republicans.

Hillary Clinton is a Democratic presidential hopeful.

Hillary Clinton (L) and Carly Fiorina (R).

Both are impressive, powerful women who aspire to become leaders of the free world.

Both also happen to be women — a fact that was seized upon by a US television anchor last week, to cringeworthy effect.

CNN host Carol Costello.

CNN host Carol Costello, speaking about the pair’s presidential bids on the American television network, branded the competition between Fiorina and Clinton a “weird girl fight”.

Funnily enough (insert heavy sarcasm), she did not refer to any political rivalry between male politicians as a “weird boy fight” in the same segment.

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After Fiorina’s announcement that she was running, Costello said she andidate had positioned herself as an ”attack dog” to beat Clinton.

“She’s sort of setting herself up to be Hillary Clinton ’s chief attack dog,” she said.

“So, it’s turning into this weird girl fight almost.”

A few of the social media responses to the gaffe:

Image: via Twitter

Image: via Twitter

Image: via Twitter

Image: via Twitter

Image: via Twitter

Image: via Twitter

Image: via Twitter

Image: via Twitter

Costello also said on Tuesday she “wished both Hillary Clinton and Carly Fiorina would stop talking about being the first woman president”.

Youch.

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