Furious Chris Christie calls Vivek Ramaswamy a 'jacka**' with a 'woman problem': Ex-New Jersey governor says he 'had enough' with his rival in fiery debate performance including a VERY heated off-air confrontation with Megyn Kelly

Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie called 2024 rival Vivek Ramaswamy a 'jacka**' with a 'woman problem' after Wednesday night's fiery fourth Republican primary debate. 

Christie and Ramaswamy provided some of the biggest fireworks onstage during the two hour-long affair held at the University of Alabama. 

The ex-governor also created some commotion during a commercial break, asking moderator Megyn Kelly for more time, a source told DailyMail.com, after he waited 17 minutes to first speak. 

Afterward, Christie went on CNN and said he had 'had enough' of Ramaswamy. 

'He is a jack a**,' Christie said. 

At the debate, Christie furiously defended fellow GOP candidate Nikki Haley, the former U.N. ambassador, after she was attacked by Ramaswamy onstage.  

'It's not me forming an alliance with Nikki Haley,' Christie told CNN's Dana Bash. 

'Look, I am a truth teller, Dana. And I am going to tell the truth. If someone is insulting Nikki Haley in a way that was personal. It was nothing about issues. He said she is not smart enough to know where things on the map, that somehow his 3-year-old son is smarter than a woman who served as a two-term governor and U.N. Ambassador.' 

He argued that he defended her because she is an 'accomplished woman and worked incredibly hard both in South Carolina and in the U.N.' 

'And I think that Vivek does have a woman problem,' the ex-governor said. 'I do think he insults women's basic intelligence. He has done it over and over and over again. And I guess tonight I just had had enough. I had enough of listening to his garbage.'

Christie had knocked Ramaswamy's 'smart*ss Harvard mouth' and did so again during his time on CNN. 

'When he is dictating to me and Nikki Haley, who committed ourselves to public service while he has been off stealing from seniors to make his fortune, yeah, I am not going to put up with anymore,' Christie said. 

Onstage, Ramaswamy said of Haley that 'foreign policy experience is not the same as foreign policy wisdom,' adding that the former U.N. ambassador would not be able to locate certain provinces of Ukraine on a map. 

This insult unleashed a tirade from Christie - who needed an eye-catching performance to resurrect his struggling campaign - who defeneded Haley as a 'smart, accomplished woman.' 

'This is the fourth debate that you would be voted in the first 20 minutes as the most obnoxious blowhard in America,' he told Ramaswamy.

Ramaswamy shot back telling Christie that, 'His version of 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 said.  

Ramaswamy again became the subject of Christie's ire - the two have tussled on the debate stage a number of times before - while discussing the war in Ukraine. 

The 38-year-old political novice said there needed to be a 'reasonable peace deal' in the war with Russia, and then turned to Haley saying that she and President Joe Biden were among the only two politicians to believe in the 'pointless war.' 

'One thing that Joe Biden and Nikki Haley have in common is that neither of them could even state for you three provinces in Eastern Ukraine that they want to send our troops to actually fight for,' Ramaswamy said. 

'She has no idea what the hell the names of those provinces are that she wants to send our sons and daughters and our troops and our military equipment to go fight,' he continued. 

'So reject this myth that they've been selling you – that somebody had a cup of coffee, a stint at the UN, and makes 8 million bucks after – has real foreign policy experience,' Ramaswamy added, arguing that his 'outsider' status gives him an elevated perspective. 

Haley stayed stonefaced throughout the attack. 

'Look at the blank expression,' Ramaswamy said. 'She doesn't know the names of the provinces.' 

Christie opened up the debate by criticizing Trump and then the three candidates onstage. 

'The fifth guy, who doesn't have the guts to show up and stand here, he's the one… who's way ahead in the polls,' Christie said. 'And yet I've got these three guys who are all seeming to compete with, you know, Voldemort – he who should not be named. They don't want to talk about it.'

'We're 17 minutes into this debate and ... we've had all these three acting as if this race is between the four us,' the ex-New Jersey governor said. 

He later used the same device to hit Ramaswamy. 

'I want to say something else, we're now 25 minutes into this debate and he has insulted Nikki Haley's basic intelligence, not her positions, her basic intelligence,' he roared. 'She doesn't know regions, she wouldn't be able to find something on a map that his three-year-old could find.'

'Look, if you want to disagree on issues that's fine, and Nikki and I disagree on some issues. But I'll tell you this, I've known her 12 years, which is longer than he's even started to vote in the Republican primaries,' Christie added. 

Later Christie made a similar insult of Ramaswamy saying he was 'learning about the provinces sitting with this smart-a** mouth at Harvard' while the 61-year-old was going after terrorists.  

Christie's takedown didn't deter Ramaswamy's attacks on Haley, who's moved to second place in New Hampshire and is starting to leapfrog Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis for second in some national polls. 

Ramaswamy was asked by moderator Eliana Johnson why he used Haley's full first name 'Nimarata' to refer to her and whether he doubted her Christian faith. 

Both candidates were raised Hindu but Haley converted.  

'I don't question her faith, but I question her authenticity,' Ramaswamy answered. 

He hammered her for using 'identity politics' by pointing out that she was a woman. 

The 38-year-old tech entrepreneur claimed that Haley's launch video 'sounded like a woke Dylan Mulvaney Bud Light ad talking about how she would kick in heels.' 

'At the first debate, she said only a woman could get this job done. That's what she said,' Ramaswamy said. 

'After the third debate when I criticized Ronna McDaniel for five failed years of leadership of this party, and criticized Nikki for her corrupt foreign dealings as a military contractor, she said that I had a "woman problem,"' he said. 'Maybe I don't have a woman problem, you have a corruption problem.' 

Ramaswamy had scrawled something on his notepad at the top of the debate. 

He showed it off to the audience at that moment: 'Nikki = Corrupt.' 

'And I think that's what people need to know. Nikki is corrupt,' he said, holding up the tablet.   

Ramaswamy was booed. 

When Johnson asked Haley if she wanted to respond, she demurred.  

'No, it's not worth my time to respond to him,' she said.