Chris Christie’s Best Lines from the GOP Debate: ‘Voldemort’ Trump, ‘Blowhard’ Ramaswamy and ‘Afraid’ DeSantis

Chris Christie has had enough.

The former New Jersey governor and presidential candidate is unlikely to win his party’s nomination, but on Wednesday night in Alabama, Christie – a former federal prosecutor – used his time at the fourth Republican debate to not only lambast Vivek Ramaswamy and Ron DeSantis, but to question the entire reason for having debates that do not take on former President Donald Trump, the Republican frontrunner who is leading in all polls.

“This is an angry, bitter man who now wants to be back as president because he wants to exact retribution on anyone who disagrees with him, and anyone who has tried to hold him to account,” Christie said of Trump. “His conduct is unacceptable, he’s unfit – and be careful of what you’re gonna get” if he wins a second term.

Christie’s strategy of pushing his rivals on Trump dominated aspects of the debate, turning it into not only a battle of Republican ideas but a question about whether it is even worth debating if most of the people looking to oust Trump as the Republican frontrunner are unwilling to directly take him on.

On Ramaswamy, Christie labeled the businessman-turned-politician the “most obnoxious blowhard in America,” told him to “shut up for a little while,” and mocked him for “sitting with his smart-ass mouth at Harvard” when he was prosecuting terrorists as the U.S. Attorney in New Jersey.

On DeSantis, Christie chastised the Florida governor for failing to answer questions, deriding him for offering “a 30-second hosanna about his knowledge of the military” but failing to say whether he would send the U.S. military to return American hostages in Gaza. 

Later in the debate, Christie ridiculed the Florida governor for failing to directly answer whether he thought Trump was mentally fit to win a second term.

“Ron, is he fit or isn't he?” Christie asked repeatedly, watching DeSantis struggle to directly answer while saying he did think Trump was too old. “He won’t answer. … He is afraid to answer,” Christie added, looking at DeSantis and smirking. “Either you are afraid or you are not listening.”

“I am a simple guy. I hear the question and I answer. Is he fit, or isn’t he,” Christie continued, joking about DeSantis’ age and adding that the issue he has with DeSantis and the other two candidates on stage is they are “afraid to offend” Trump.

And on the mere act of having Trump-less debates, Christie said it was “ridiculous” for this debate to “go 17 minutes without discussing the guy who has all those gaudy numbers you talked about.” Christie referred to Trump as Voldemort, the Harry Potter villain who people believed could be summoned by saying his name. “He is unfit,” Christie said of the former president.

“I understand why they're timid to say anything” about Trump, Christie said of his opponents. “Maybe they have future aspirations. Maybe those future aspirations are now or maybe four years from now. But the fact of the matter is the truth needs to be told."

This kind of aggression has always been a Christie hallmark, from his time as governor to his alliance with Trump in 2016 to his quixotic run for president this year. 

But Christie – an already rhetorically unencumbered politician – was particularly unburdened on Wednesday night, a reflection of both how unlikely it is that Christie will win his party’s nomination and how questionable it is that Republican candidates are debating each other without mentioning the race’s frontrunner who has refused to even show up.

The former New Jersey governor has said his long shot campaign’s main goal is to prevent Trump – who he called a “dictator” and a “bully” – from winning another term in the White House. 

The one person Christie did not savage on stage was Nikki Haley, the rising former Ambassador to the United Nations and South Carolina governor, offering insight into how he views the future of the Republican race.

“All he knows how to do, all he knows how to do is insult good people,” Christie said of Ramaswamy after he questioned Haley’s intelligence.

He added later that he had known Haley for 12 years – longer than Ramaswamy had been a Republican, he quipped – and said while they disagree on several issues, “what we don't disagree on is this is a smart accomplished woman."