The four remaining GOP candidates, with an eye towards the millions of voters looking for an alternative to Republican frontrunner Donald Trump at the final Republican debate, engaged in a heated slugfest.

At one point, name-calling was threatening to overwhelm the debate stage. This has been greatly reduced since more than 12 people announced they were running for Republican nomination.

The fourth debate was a cut-off of only four candidates. This reduced number seemed to intensify insults. As is his custom, Mr. Trump skipped the debate, citing his huge lead.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, the former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations and Nikki Haley, the biotech tycoon Vivek RAMASWAMY and the former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie also participated. Chris Christie was also present.

The two men fought each other violently about the foreign policy of the United States and their personalities.

At one point, Mr. Christie asked Mr. Ramaswamy “to shut up for a little while” and called the “most obnoxious blowhard of America.”

Mr. Ramaswamy said to Mr. Christie that he should leave the debate, “get yourself a nice dinner and get out this race.”

Both Mr. DeSantis and Ms. Haley – who are still leading the second-tier pack and have the most momentum among the candidates and are now on Mr. DeSantis’ heels in Iowa – made their case for being the best candidates to face President Biden this November.

Mr. DeSantis slammed Ms. Haley for being too moderate to be the GOP candidate and her opposition to legislation that would prevent children from having sex-change operations.

“She gives in, whenever the left comes at her,” Mr. DeSantis declared, praising his state’s laws that prohibit sex exchange operations with minors.

She said that the law should not be involved. “If you are going to become the president of the United States, and you cannot stand up to child abuse, then how will you be able stand up to anything else?” he asked.

Mr. Ramaswamy criticised Ms. Haley because she served on the board at Boeing Corp., and accepted donations from Wall Street donors including Larry Fink, the “woke” CEO BlackRock.

He called her a fraud and a fake for, amongst other things, using her English-sounding second name (Nikki), rather than her Indian sounding first name, Nimarata.

When asked by the moderators whether she wanted to reply, Ms. Haley replied: “It is not worth my while to respond to him.”

Haley defended her time spent on the Boeing board, which is one of the biggest employers in South Carolina where she was governor.

Ms. Haley claimed that her rivals on stage are “just jealous” and “wish [they] were supporting them.”

Megyn Kelley, the moderator of the show, asked Mr. Christie why he continued to run despite his low poll numbers.

Former New Jersey Governor, an ally of Donald Trump, but now a critic, says he is still running to warn voters against the former president. He believes that he must stop him from becoming the GOP candidate.

Christie stated, “I am running because I believe the truth must be told.” “He’s unfit.”

The group fought over U.S. policies on Israel, Ukraine and Iran.

Mr. Ramaswamy has defended his opposition against U.S. involvement abroad, framing GOP opponents as ignorant and eager to send U.S. troops into endless “pointless” wars.

He said that neither Ms. Haley or Mr. Christie knew the names of the provinces abroad they wanted to spend billions on and send thousands of Americans for.

Most of his anger was directed at Haley.

“You can paint a Dick Cheney with lipstick, but it’s still fascist and neocon,” Ramaswamy stated.