Chris Christie plus beach chair equals comedy goldmine
Chris Christie sure gets around. There he is in the Oval Office. Then on the Hawaiian beach in “From Here to Eternity” and next to an Amity Island billboard in “Jaws.”
And all without leaving his beach chair.
The New Jersey governor came in for a dose of online mockery at the hands of Photoshop fans Monday after photos surfaced Sunday night of Christie lounging in a beach chair with his family and friends at a deserted beach closed to the public by a government shutdown.
New Jersey state beaches and parks were shut down over the weekend along with motor vehicle offices and other services deemed nonessential after Christie and the Democratic-controlled Legislature failed to agree on a budget for the new fiscal year that began Saturday.
Christie defended his visit to the shore, saying that he had previously announced his plans to vacation at the state-owned governor’s beach house and that the media had simply “caught a politician keeping his word.”
“That’s the way it goes,” Christie said Saturday about his family’s use of the beach house. “Run for governor, and you can have the residence.”
Later, after he was photographed on the beach, he sarcastically called it a “great bit of journalism.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
This story was originally published July 3, 2017 at 1:38 PM with the headline "Chris Christie plus beach chair equals comedy goldmine."