Republicans opened their sixth presidential debate Thursday night with an overarching rebuke of President Obama’s State of the Union address and national security policy.
When co-host Maria Bartiromo laid out a litany of foreign policy concerns — including the rise of radical Islamic terrorists, the detente with Iran, and jockeying with China — New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie joked that Obama appears as though he doesn’t understand the true state of the world.
 
“Maria, I’m glad to have heard from you in the summary of that question about what’s going on in the world, because on Tuesday night I watched story time with Barack Obama, and I got to tell you, it sounded like everything in the world was going amazing,” Christie said.
 
He added that America needs to repair its alliances while making clear to adversaries where the line is, especially in light of Iran’s recent detention of American sailors.
 
“It’s absolutely disgraceful that Secretary [of State John] Kerry and others said in their response to what was going on in Iran that this was a good thing, it showed the relationship was getting better,” Christie said.
Christie gave his answer just a few minutes after Texas Sen. Ted Cruz similarly bashed Obama, a call Christie said he agreed with.
 
Cruz said it was “heartbreaking” that the president never even mentioned the captured sailors, who were shown in photos on their knees.
 
“If I’m elected president, no serviceman or servicewoman would be forced to be on their knees and any nation that captures our fighting men and women will feel the full force and fury of the United States of America.”
 
Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush piled on soon after.
 
“What we need to achieve is peace through strength, which means we need to rebuild the military. In this administration, every weapons system has been gutted. In this administration, the force levels are going down,” he said.
 
“For the life of me, I have no understanding why the president thinks everything is going well. Terrorism is on the run, China, Russia is advancing their agenda at warp speed.”