Candidates clash as things get spicy during 4th Republican presidential primary debate

Four GOP presidential hopefuls took the stage in Alabama on Wednesday night to participate in the fourth Republican presidential primary debate of the 2024 election cycle. The event was moderated by Megyn Kelly, Eliana Johnson, and Elizabeth Vargas.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations and former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, and entrepreneur and author Vivek Ramaswamy took part in the debate while former President Donald Trump, the clear frontrunner, skipped the event, just as he skipped the prior three debates.

Christie slammed Ramaswamy, suggesting to him that this marked "the fourth debate that you would be voted, in the first 20 minutes, as the most obnoxious blowhard" in the U.S.

Ramaswamy told Christie to "do everybody a favor: just walk yourself off that stage, enjoy a nice meal, and get the hell outta this race."

Kelly noted that Christie does not support banning transgender measures for children.

"The surgeries done on minors involve cutting off body parts," even as those kids cannot lawfully smoke cigarettes, Kelly noted. "Kids who go from puberty blockers to cross-sex hormones are at a much greater likelihood of winding up sterile."

She pressed him about how he could believe that parents should be permitted to green light such surgeries, "never mind the sterilization of a child," and asked whether his view makes him too out of step on the matter to serve as the GOP nominee.

Christie defended his position, arguing that parents should have the authority to make decisions for their children.

DeSantis pointed out that parents do not have a right to abuse their children.

"Nikki is corrupt," Ramaswamy said of Haley while holding up a notepad with the words "NIKKI" and "CORRUPT" written on it. "This is a woman who will send your kids to die so she can buy a bigger house."

Offered the chance to respond, Haley declined, saying that it was not worth her time to respond to Ramaswamy.

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