'I didn't get any sun': Photos show Chris Christie lounging on state beach he closed in government shutdown
It was particularly disappointing for those who planned on enjoying the state's famous beaches over the Fourth of July holiday weekend, which closed as part of "nonessential services."
But there was one New Jerseyan who enjoyed the sand on Sunday - Republican Gov. Chris Christie.
After Island Beach State Park closed in the shutdown, he and his family enjoyed the empty beach outside the state-owned governor's summer house.
New Jersey Advance photojournalist Andrew Mills captured the photos from a long-range lens aboard a small plane that the paper had booked to capture the crowded beaches for the holiday. But they found Christie instead.
"Most of the time, I get the shots and make a clean getaway. But once in a while, when the eyes meet, you know the jig is up," Mills wrote. "Then again, it wasn't difficult to find him. There Christie was, with family and friends, on a long and empty stretch of beach near the governor's shore residence, nobody else within a country mile."
At a press conference after the photos were taken, Christie asked if he enjoyed the beach Sunday.
"I didn't," he said. "I didn't get any sun today."
When the Advance posted the photos online afterward, the governor's spokesman Brian Murray had to clarify that Christie was in fact at the beach.
"He did not get any sun," Murray said. "He had a baseball hat on."
The least popular governor in America, Christie's approval rating dipped to a record-low 15% in June. When asked about his unpopularity at the time, he replied, "I don't care."
On Sunday, Christie blamed the state shutdown on the legislature and said he'd sign any budget lawmakers sent him. State lawmakers are deadlocked on the $34.7 billion budget.
After the photos went viral online Sunday night, Christie defended his actions in interviews with local Fox affiliates Monday morning.
"They actually caught a politician being where he said he was going to be with the people he said he was going to be with, his wife and children and their friends. I am sure they will get a Pulitzer for this one," he told Fox 5 in New York. "They caught me doing what I said I was going to do with the people I said I was going to be with."
When Fox 29 in Philadelphia asked him about the photos, and why he was enjoying the beach when the public couldn't, Christie said simply: "I'm sorry they're not the governor."