‘Most obnoxious blowhard in America’

Sparks flew Wednesday night as former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie tore into Vivek Ramaswamy after the biotech entrepreneur slighted Nikki Haley’s intelligence.

“This is the fourth debate. The fourth debate that you will be voted in the first 20 minutes as the most obnoxious blowhard in America,” Christie said, setting off a near-screaming match as Ramaswamy repeatedly interrupted Christie.

“We’re now 25 minutes into this debate and he has insulted Nikki Haley’s basic intelligence, not her positions, her basic intelligence,” Christie went on. “She is a smart accomplished woman you should stop insulting her.”

Ramaswamy had compared Haley to President Biden by saying: “Neither of them could even state for you three provinces in eastern Ukraine that they want to send our troops to actually fight for.”

“Reject this myth that they’ve been selling you that somebody had a cup of coffee stint at the UN and then makes 8 million bucks after has real foreign policy experience,” Ramaswamy added before calling attention to Haley’s “blank expression.”

Ramaswamy also needled Haley by suggesting that she “can’t tell the difference between Israel and the US” on the map.

Christie told the audience that Ramaswamy’s peace plan for Ukraine amounted to “give [Russia] all the land they’ve already stolen.”

“You go out on the stump and you say something … we confront you on the debate stage,” he added. “You say you didn’t say it and then you back away.”

“Nikki and I disagree on some issues, but I’ll tell you this,” Christie concluded. “I’ve known him for 12 years, which is longer than he’s even started to vote in the Republican primary. We disagree about some issues, we disagree about who should be president of the United States. Well, we don’t disagree on this: This is a smart, accomplished woman. You should stop insulting her.”

“First of all, Chris Christie also doesn’t know what provinces in eastern Ukraine, he actually wants to fight for,” Ramaswamy shot back before suggesting that the bulk of Christie’s “foreign policy experience was closing a bridge from New Jersey to New York.”

“So do everybody a favor, just walk yourself off that stage, enjoy a nice meal and get the hell out of this race,” he concluded before turning his attention back to Haley.

“Neither of them could even name for you the provinces that they actually want to protect. And these are the people who’ve been touting their so-called foreign policy experience,” Ramaswamy said. “It is intellectual fraud. These people are lying. They’re the same people who told you about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq to justify that invasion … The same people told you the same in Afghanistan, where the Taliban is still in charge 20 years later.”

“You can put lipstick on a Dick Cheney, it is still a fascist neocon.”