Rand Paul Calls Chris Christie 'King Of Bacon' As Republican Feud Contines

The feud between Republicans Chris Christie and Rand Paul is quickly approaching critical mass. The two possible contenders for the 2016 presidential race have been firing shots at one another for days, but things came to a head Tuesday when the senator from Kentucky called Christie “the king of bacon,” an attack on the New Jersey governor’s spending habits as well as an obvious jab at his weight.

Earlier Tuesday, Christie appeared at a press conference in New Jersey, where he responded to Paul’s criticism that he spent too much on "pork barrel" projects, the Newark Star-Ledger reports. Christie stated that New Jersey taxpayers contribute far more to the federal government than Kentucky's.

"I find it interesting that Sen. Paul is accusing us of having a gimme, gimme, gimme attitude toward federal spending when in fact New Jersey is a donor state, we get 61 cents back on every dollar we send to Washington. And interestingly Kentucky gets 1.51 on every dollar they sent to Washington," Christie said, dripping with disdain for Paul.

"So if Sen. Paul wants to start looking at where he's going to start to cut spending ... maybe he should start cutting the pork barrel spending that he brings home to Kentucky."

In response, Paul appeared on CNN, where he continued to attack Christie’s record on government entitlements. He also defended Kentucky’s consumption of federal money by stating that Kentucky is home to two military bases which require large amounts of federal funds.

“This is the king of bacon talking about bacon,” Paul said.

“You know, we have two military bases in Kentucky, and is Gov. Christie recommending that we shut down our military bases? … No what this debate really is about is that in order to have enough money for national defense, which I think is a priority for the government, you have to be willing to cut spending in other places, and Gov. Christie and others have been part of this gimme, gimme, gimme, gimme all this money.”

Watch a CNN video containing both Chris Christie and Rand Paul’s remarks below.