Republican debate: The biggest zingers from the second GOP matchup

The clear front-runner may have skipped the second Republican presidential debate, but the seven candidates attending directed their firepower at one another and at former president Donald Trump.

Here are some of the most memorable zingers from the debate as candidates battled for second-place footing.

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“Joe Biden doesn’t belong on a picket line. He belongs on the unemployment line.” — Mike Pence

Former Vice President Mike Pence got the first zinger off, directed at President Joe Biden. While speaking on the topic of Biden joining the picket line in the United Auto Workers strike, Pence directed his ire toward the favorite target of everyone onstage.

He piggybacked off of Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC), who said that Biden should not be on a picket line but rather at the southern border.

“Look, I do disagree with something Tim Scott just said,” Pence began. “Joe Biden doesn’t belong on a picket line. He belongs on the unemployment line.”

The remark drew applause from the crowd.

“Donald Trump is missing in action.” — Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL)

In his opening remarks on the stage, the highest polling candidate onstage departed from his normal strategy of avoiding naming former President Donald Trump, instead directly calling him out for skipping the debate. To add insult to injury, he drew a direct parallel between the former president and Biden.

“Where’s Joe Biden? He’s completely missing in action from leadership,” DeSantis began. “And you know who else is missing in action? Donald Trump is missing in action. He should be on this stage tonight. He owes it to you to defend his record, where they added $7.8 trillion to the debt. That set the stage for the inflation that we have now.”

“We’re going to call you Donald Duck.” — former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie to Trump

Unlike DeSantis, Christie has made a central part of his campaign confronting Trump directly. He decided to take a page out of Trump’s playbook by issuing a nickname for the former president, related to his skipping the debate.

“You’re not here tonight because you are afraid of being on this stage and defending your record,” Christie said. “You’re ducking these things. And let me tell you what’s going to happen. You keep doing that, no one up here is going to call you Donald Trump anymore. We’re going to call you Donald Duck.”

The remarks drew laughter from the crowd and a chuckle from one of the moderators.

“Honestly, every time I hear you, I feel a little bit dumber for what you say.” — former United Nations ambassador Nikki Haley to Vivek Ramaswamy

Haley renewed her rivalry with Ramaswamy, which saw some of the most heated interactions of the first debate. She again went on offense when the subject of TikTok, the Chinese-owned social media app, was brought up to Ramaswamy. While the tech entrepreneur defended his use of the app as a way to win young voters, Haley pounced.

“This is infuriating because TikTok is one of the most dangerous social media apps that we could have, and what you’ve got — honestly, every time I hear you, I feel a little bit dumber for what you say,” Haley said. “What they’re doing is 150 million people are on TikTok. That means they can get your contacts. They can get your financial information. They can get your emails. They can get text messages. They can get all of these things.”

“You now wanted kids to go and get on this social media that’s dangerous for all of us? You were in business with the Chinese that gave Hunter Biden $5 million. We can’t trust you,” she continued.

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Ramaswamy laughed off Haley’s comments, rejecting the business with China allegations, and said they should return to discussing policy.

“I think we will be better served as a Republican Party if we’re not sitting here hurling personal insults and actually have a legitimate debate about policy, following Reagan’s 11th commandment in his honor,” he remarked.