‘I didn’t get any sun today,’ Republican says, though photo shows him relaxing on beach that was closed as part of budget standoff
New Jersey’s Island Beach state park was closed on Sunday due to a budget standoff – with the exception of governor Chris Christie, his family and friends.
The Republican governor shut down the state government at midnight on Saturday in a health insurance battle with the Democrat-led legislature.
While others were reportedly turned away by police, New Jersey Advance Media took a picture of Christie with his wife Mary Pat and others on the otherwise deserted public beach.
Christie later travelled by helicopter from the beach in Berkeley to the state capital Trenton to hold a news conference about the shutdown. Asked if he got any sun, Christie replied: “I didn’t get any sun today.”
Facebook Twitter Pinterest Christie on the beach that was closed to the public. Photograph: Advance Media/Barcroft Images
When later told of the photo showing him relaxing on the beach, Christie’s spokesman Brian Murray said: “Yes, the governor was on the beach briefly today talking to his wife and family before heading into the office.”
But that did not mean Christie got any sun. “He had a baseball hat on,” Murray said.
The governor is moving back and forth from Trenton to the summer beach house provided by the state in Berkeley to deal with the shutdown in the capital and also spend time with his family by the shore over the Independence Day holiday.
Christie said the beach house is “where my family is sleeping, so that’s where I’ll sleep tonight. When I have a choice between sleeping with my family, and sleeping alone, I generally like to sleep where my family is.”
Facebook Twitter Pinterest Christie denied he had got any sun on Sunday, but a spokesman later said this was because he was wearing a hat. Photograph: Eduardo Munoz/Reuters
Christie ordered the shutdown of nonessential state services, including parks and motor vehicle offices, on Friday after he and lawmakers failed to agree on terms.
On Saturday he said the beach house was separate from Island Beach state park and his family would not be using any state services.
Asked if this was fair, Christie said: “Run for governor, and you can have a residence there.”
ChloeTheCat753 on July 3rd, 2017 at 13:13 UTC »
A super quick summary for those who may want to know more-
New Jersey's government is shutdown right now due to the budget not being passed. This means that there's no money to keep state parks open as they are deemed 'non-essential'. This is awful because of the money the state is losing keeping these parks closed on the holiday weekend.
I'm one of the non-essential 35,000 state employees who gets to stay home today unpaid because of my state legislators not being able to get a budget passed.
Here's a link for a more in depth article: https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.cnn.com/cnn/2017/07/01/politics/nj-government-shutdown-chris-christie/index.html
Truthisnotallowed on July 3rd, 2017 at 11:37 UTC »
Should I lie - and say I am surprised?
This is the same guy who had the State pay for his helicopter rides to political fund raisers and his kids sporting events. Not exactly things he should have been expecting the tax payers to foot the bill for.
maleablenotion on July 3rd, 2017 at 10:47 UTC »
This gets better!
In true onion spirit, his PR rep said that he only spent some time there before work and did not get any sun because “He had a baseball hat on"