Despite initially denying it upon reporter prompting, New Jersey Governor Chris Christie spent yesterday with his family at Island Beach State Park amidst a state government shutdown closing all of New Jersey’s parks to the public.
When asked about whether he “got any sun today” at a press conference that same day, Christie negated the suggestion. Upon being prompted by the beach situation, however, Christie’s spokesman, Brian Murray, upheld the governor’s statement to be true because of Christie’s attire that day.
“He did not get any sun. He had a baseball hat on,” Murray said to the press when they questioned about the photographic evidence by New Jersey’s Star-Leger showing Christie with his family on the state park beach.
In spite of having a multitude of opportunities to explain the controversy and clear up the governor’s seemingly illegal action to vacation on a closed public beach, the governor instead insistently justified his comments. Christie said that his family owned the private governor vacation home on the beach.
“That’s just the way it goes,” Christie said when an interviewer asked him about whether his use of the shutdown public beach was fair. “Run for governor, and you can have a residence.”
With a 15% governor approval rating—the lowest of all governors in the country—Christie’s presence at the park resembled to many an abuse of powers by a government figure, evidenced by the ordeal’s nickname “BeachGate.”
More GOP hypocrisy. Gov. Chris Christie: beach vacation for me, but not for thee. https://t.co/W5zPby1RuU
— George Takei (@GeorgeTakei) July 3, 2017
Banner plane urges Chris Christie to “get the hell off” N.J. beach https://t.co/U9p7rFI81g pic.twitter.com/F5wctC5ElS
— HuffPost (@HuffPost) July 3, 2017
3. He also blatantly lied to reporters, denying he went to the beach, saying he didn’t get any sun https://t.co/Uw0agzYYVQ
— Judd Legum (@JuddLegum) July 3, 2017
While Christie is a “key player” in the government budget shutdown that indeterminately closed all New Jersey beaches to the public, he is also using his governor-benefit beach home to access a facility that any other resident of his state may face legal repercussions for using.
Christie’s apparent “I don’t care” politician stance disregards the public’s opinions and backlash on his actions as well as his public approval rating. In fact, Christie, whose role as governor is to make decisions in the best interest of all the citizens of his state, even said that non-voter opinions on how he’s performing do not “matter” because those vote-abstaining residents do not express their opinions in government elections.
“It would be nice if people actually polled voters or people who are likely to vote, because everybody else’s opinion, quite frankly, doesn’t matter about whether you like a public official or you don’t—unless you’re willing to move forward and exercise that preference at the polling places,” Christie said in a recent press conference.
Explaining Christie’s developing character in an interview with the New York Times, political pundit Kevin Madden said, “[Christie’s] rise to national prominence was that he had this reputation as a fighter, and that when he was fighting, he was on the side of the Everyman and the New Jersey taxpayer against the the status quo. I think the danger of the photos is that it undermines that.”
Christie is currently entering into his last six months of his New Jersey governor term.
