Chris Christie got into a fiery exchange with Vivek Ramaswamy during Wednesday night’s fourth GOP debate, calling out the entrepreneur and fellow White House contender for repeatedly interrupting and blasting him for his attacks against fellow candidate Nikki Haley.
“This is the fourth debate that you would be voted in the first 20 minutes as the most obnoxious blowhard in America. So shut up for a little while,” Christie said during the event, hosted by The Hill’s sister news organization NewsNation.
The former New Jersey governor had offered a summary of Ramaswamy’s stance on the Ukraine-Russia conflict, which Ramaswamy denied was correct.
“It’s exactly what you said. You do this at every debate,” Christie said.
When Ramaswamy interjected, Christie said, “You go out on the stump and you say something, all us see it on video, we confront you out on the debate stage. You say you didn’t say it, and then you back away.”
Christie then came to the defense of Haley, who has repeatedly gotten into fiery back-and-forth exchanges with Ramaswamy over the last several debates. Ramaswamy had once again launched broadsides against Haley in the opening of Wednesday night’s debate.
“We’re now 25 minutes into this debate and he has insulted Nikki Haley’s basic intelligence,” Christie said. “Not her positions, her basic intelligence: She doesn’t know regions and she wouldn’t be able to find something on a map that his three-year-old could find.”
“Nikki and I disagree on some issues, but I’ll tell you this: I’ve known her for 12 years, which is longer than he’s even started to vote in the Republican primary. And while we disagree about some issues that we disagree about, who should be President of the United States, what we don’t disagree [about] is: This is a smart, accomplished woman, and you should stop insulting her.”
Haley and Ramaswamy have built up a notable rivalry over the last six months, as Haley has gained traction in many polls. Christie, meanwhile, has staked out a position as a vocal critic of former President Trump.