Republican presidential candidate and former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie called out his fellow hopeful, Vivek Ramaswamy, during the first GOP debate Wednesday night after Ramaswamy recycled an old line of former President Barack Obama. "Who the heck is this skinny guy with a funny last name, and what the heck is he doing in the middle of this debate stage?" Ramaswamy said during his opening at the Fox News-hosted event. He ripped the line, "a skinny kid with a funny name," from the then-Illinois state senator's keynote speech vying for a seat in the U.S. Senate at the Democratic National Convention in 2004.
Christie noted the reference and fired back moments later. "I've had enough already tonight of a guy who sounds like ChatGPT," he began. "The last person in one of these debates ... who stood in the middle of the stage and said, 'What's a skinny guy with an odd last name doing up here?' was Barack Obama. And I'm afraid we're dealing with the same type of amateur." Ramaswamy responded with a joking call to Christie to "come over and give me a hug" — a reference to Christie hugging Obama in 2012 when he promised quick emergency aid to New Jersey in the wake of Superstorm Sandy — but the audience's cheers drowned him out. Viewers of the debate also noticed the lifted line with many making the connection online. "'Skinny guy with a funny name' sounds very….Obamaesque," MSNBC host Jen Psaki tweeted.
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