Did Vivek Ramaswamy plagiarize Barack Obama during the Republican presidential primary debate? Chris Christie called him out in epic fashion

Did Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy steal a line from Barack Obama during the presidential primary debate in Milwaukee?

Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie had no doubt about it, as did others on social media, when they heard the billionaire entrepreneur make a statement Wednesday night.

"Who the heck is this skinny guy with a funny last name? What the heck is he doing in the middle of this debate stage?" Ramaswamy said early in the debate.

Obama, speaking at the 2004 Democratic National Convention as a U.S. senator four years before he would take the White House, did in fact refer to himself as a "skinny kid with a funny name."

Obama's message that night was hope and unity.

Ramaswamy certainly wasn't unifying any of the Republicans.

Christie, who didn't have Donald Trump to spar with after the former president skipped the debate, had enough of Ramaswamy's comments during a climate change discussion.

Ramaswamy called the climate change agenda "a hoax" at the debate, which also contradicts what he said months earlier in an interview.

That's when Christie chimed in: "I’ve had enough already tonight of a guy who sounds like ChatGPT stand up here."

That got a laugh from many.

"The last person who stood up here saying, '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 standing on the stage tonight," Christie said.

Ramaswamy joked Christie should give him "a hug" like he did to Obama and claimed that Christie helped Obama get elected.

"Same type of amateur," Christie repeated as the two went back and forth.

When did Chris Christie give Barack Obama a hug?

This has been a long talking point for Christie and his opponents over the years.

It stems from a visit from the then-president to New Jersey in the aftermath of the Hurricane Sandy in 2012. The hurricane, which is the largest to hit the Atlantic coastline on record, struck a week before the presidential election in which Republican Mitt Romney ended up losing to the incumbent Obama.

Christie was New Jersey's governor at the time and greeted Obama and then toured with him the hardest hit areas of his state on Oct. 31, 2012. Politicians coming together during a disaster is certainly not out of the norm even if they are of different parties. We saw President Joe Biden and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis work side by side in the aftermath of a fatal condo collapse in Miami in July 2021.

But in today's divisive American politics, that interaction continues to be used against Christie more than a decade later.

Christie has denied at times that he and Obama even hugged, calling it more of a handshake. But he nonetheless has faced criticism for even appearing together with the Democratic president during the election season.

In 2016, Time Magazine broke down six ways Christie has addressed "the hug" over the years.

Fact check: Some right, some wrong on schools, Ukraine, Hunter Biden

This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Did Vivek Ramaswamy plagiarize Barack Obama during Republican debate?