Ron DeSantis showed “discomfort” during a Republican debate, a body language expert has said.

The Republican Florida governor took part in the fourth GOP debate on Wednesday in Alabama, alongside former South Carolina governor and UN Ambassador Nikki Haley, ex-New Jersey Governor Chris Christie and tech entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy.

Hosted by NewsNation, the debate came as the last opportunity for the GOP candidates to face each other before the first primary caucus in Iowa on January 15.

As with the three proceeding debates, Donald Trump, the frontrunner in the contest, did not attend.

Posting on X, formerly Twitter, Dr. Jack Brown, a prominent body language expert, said DeSantis showed “emotional discomfort and emotional vulnerability” when his rivals scored points against him during the debate.

He said: “Immediately after Nikki Haley scores a point against DeSantis and Ramaswamy, Ron DeSantis adopts a modified fig-leaf (genital guarding) configuration—signaling his emotional discomfort and and emotional vulnerability in that moment.”

Meanwhile, he also said the Republican showed “insincerity and chronic deception” by elevating his forehead.

“The overly-frequent elevated forehead contraction is THEE most common body language sign of insincerity and chronic deception,” he said. “There are few better examples of this behavior than Ron DeSantis.”

His “feigned pout” was also a “signal of insincerity and manipulative personality,” he said.

While by standing away from his lectern, DeSantis projected “a lack of full engagement and cognitive-emotional dissonance.”

Newsweek has contacted representatives for DeSantis by email to comment on this story.

During the debate, DeSantis spoke out about the dangers of fentanyl, and advocated for the construction of a border wall to stop people bringing the drug into the country.

“The drug cartels are invading our country and they are killing our citizens,” DeSantis said.

“Here’s the thing: If we had a wall across the southern border, which I support, this would not have happened. We need to build a wall across the southern border. I’ll get it done,” he added.

He also hit out at those who have criticized his polling performance.

“I’m sick of hearing about those polls,” he said during his opening statements, adding that he was the only candidate on stage “willing to stand up and fight back against what the left is doing to this country.”

According to latest polls by FiveThirtyEight, Trump is leading in the GOP primaries with a 59.6 percent share of the vote. DeSantis is second, with 12.6 percent, while Haley is third with 10.6 percent. Ramaswamy holds 4.9 percent of the vote share while Christie has 2.7 percent.