Haley draws fire in 4th GOP debate, Christie warns absent Trump is biggest issue

Christie, pointing his finger at Ramaswamy, said in the first 20 minutes of the debate that Ramaswamy would be voted “the most obnoxious blowhard in America.”

"So shut up for a little while," Christie said.

The former New Jersey governor then offered a defense of Haley, who has so far been the main target of the night.

"He has insulted Nikki Haley's basic intelligence. Not her positions, her basic intelligence," he said, adding, "Look, if you want to disagree on issues, that's fine. Nikki and I disagree on some issues. I've known her for 12 years ... and while we disagree about some issues and we disagree about who should be president of the United States, what we don't disagree on is this is a smart accomplished woman. You should stop insulting her."

Haley turned to Christie and said, “Thank you.”

Ramaswamy went on to criticize both on their foreign policy positions and brought back an attack line he used on Haley at a previous debate: "You can put lipstick on Dick Cheney, it is still a fascist."

-ABC News' Alexandra Hutzler

Haley continues to face blowback over her proposed requirement that every person on social media be verified by their name and banned from posting anonymously -- a position she later walked back slightly.

"She should come nowhere near the levers of power, let alone the White House," Ramaswamy said, calling the position "fascism."

Haley responded, "What I said was that social media companies need to show us their algorithms."

"I also said there are millions of bots on social media right now," she continued. "They're foreign, they're Chinese, they're Iranian. I will always fight for freedom of speech for Americans. We do not need freedom of speech for Russians and Iranians and Hamas. We need social media companies to go and fight back on all of these bots that are happening."

DeSantis pushed back on her characterization of her past comments.

"You can roll the tape, she said, 'I want your name' and that was going to be one of the first thing she did in office," the Florida governor said. "She got real serious blowback and understandably so, because it'd be a massive expansion of government."

-ABC News' Alexandra Hutzler

“I would absolutely -- absolutely, if they had a plan which showed me, we could get them out safely, you’re damn right I’d send the American Army in there to get our people home and get them home now,” Christie said. The former New Jersey governor accused DeSantis of avoiding the question about deploying U.S. troops to rescue hostages in the Israel-Hamas war after Hamas' terror attack.

-ABC News’ Chris Boccia

What happens when someone rises in the polls? They attract attacks from their opponents. Both DeSantis and Ramaswamy have gone after Haley from the get-go in this debate, putting Haley on the defensive. This isn't really a shock, though, because Haley's poll numbers have been on an upward trajectory, both nationally and in the early states. She also just earned a major endorsement from Americans for Prosperity, a conservative advocacy group, which Haley mentioned when answering about her electability.

Past presidential primary debates have numerous examples of rising candidates facing attacks, but a famous debate from the 2016 Republican nomination race nicely showcases this. Florida Sen. Marco Rubio finished a strong third in the Iowa caucuses, and his campaign looked positioned to potentially compete for another solid finish in New Hampshire. But in the debate just ahead of that primary, Christie hit Rubio hard, most notably when he homed in on a moment when Rubio seemed to repeat a canned line multiple times and started calling the Floridian "Robot Rubio." Rubio finished fifth in New Hampshire and never recovered.

--Analysis by Geoffrey Skelley, 538