Former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie and businessman Vivek Ramaswamy got into a heated back-and-forth over foreign policy at the fourth GOP debate on Wednesday.
The dispute started after a clash between Ramaswamy and Former South Carolina Gov. and Trump administration UN ambassador Nikki Haley over their positions on the Russia-Ukraine war and America’s support for Ukraine in the conflict. Ramaswamy criticized Haley’s neocon, interventionist position, while Haley said Ramaswamy lacked experience and didn’t even know what he was talking about.
That prompted Ramaswamy to fire back by accusing Haley of being unable to even name three provinces in Eastern Ukraine, and saying that his support for a peace settlement was starting to gain favor as Ukraine suffers military setbacks and dissent in the country over the direction of the war.
Christie jumped in to defend Haley, saying that he’d known her for years and all Ramaswamy knew how to do was insult people.
“You do this every debate,” Christie shouted. “You go out on the stump and say something, all of us see it on video, we confront you on the debate stage, you say you didn’t say it, and then you back away.”
“This is the fourth debate that you would be voted in the first 20 minutes to be the most obnoxious blowhard in America,” Christie finished as Ramaswamy tried to interject, “so shut up for a little while.”
Christie then called Ramaswamy out for insulting Haley’s basic intelligence by saying she didn’t know the names of the regions in Eastern Ukraine being disputed in the war.
Christie said that he’d been U.S. attorney in New Jersey after 9/11, so “I know about the threat of terrorism and bullying in this country.”
“He was learning about the regions of Ukraine while sitting with his smart mouth in Harvard,” Christie said.
“You can put lipstick on a Dick Cheney, it’s still a fascist neocon,” Ramaswamy shot back, comparing Christie and Haley’s foreign policy to George W. Bush’s war in Iraq.
“Chris, your version of foreign policy experience was closing a bridge from New Jersey to New York,” Ramaswamy said. “So do everybody a favor, just walk yourself off that stage, enjoy a nice meal, and get the hell out of this race.”
Host Megyn Kelly eventually went to a commercial break to calm things down.
