TRENTON -- After spending most of Monday being mocked on news shows in the U.S. and across the globe, Gov. Chris Christie said he had no regrets about his family's weekend outing at the governor's beach house at a state park that was closed to everyone else during the state shutdown.

"We have a right to be there whenever we want to be there," Christie said, speaking to reporters after announcing an end to the state government shutdown on Monday night.

"I simply wasn't going to cancel that because (state Assembly Speaker) Vinny Prieto couldn't get 41 votes together for a budget."

For the last three days, New Jersey's state government had been shut down due to a lack of a new spending plan for the coming fiscal year. That, in turn, closed state parks and state-run beaches, including the beach located at the governor's residence in Island Beach State Park.

After being photographed at the Island Beach residence in flip-flops, shorts and a t-shirt on Sunday, the governor initially denied having spent any time in the sun.

His spokesman later claimed he hadn't spent time in the sun because he'd been wearing a baseball hat.

"The way I took (the) question was, 'Hey. Were you, like, out getting a tan today?'" explained the governor. "That wasn't what I was doing, and that wasn't what those pictures show."

The governor then explained the outing was long-planned as a birthday party for his eldest son, Andrew, who graduated Princeton last year and now lives in Milwaukee.

"We don't get a lot of time to spend together as a family any more," Christie said. "We're permitted to be there whenever we want."

After spending the morning negotiating the budget accord, the governor said he spent 40 minutes "sitting there in a baseball hat, shorts and a T-shirt talking to my wife, and talking to our guests. ... I don't apologize for it."

Media outlets around the nation and as far away as New Zealand, Australia, Canada, the U.K. and Ireland seized on the photos published by NJ Advance Media of the Christie's beach weekend as emblematic of the ultimate exploitation of privilege.

Christie likened the media's reaction to the discovery of marital infidelity.

"I wasn't sitting next to a 25-year-old blonde," he said. "I was sitting next to my wife of 31 years, surrounded by my children and some of their best friends. If that's a scandal, that's a scandal I'm guilty of every day."

But despite the ensuing media firestorm, the governor insisted that he didn't "have one regret -- not one" and wouldn't have changed anything that happened.

"They can have as much fun with me on cable news as they want," said Christie. "What I am doing in my mind is having my priorities in the right order."

He said he didn't care how it looked, mentioning his low poll numbers and citing other times he'd taken a political hit by putting his family first, such as when he took them to Disney World in the midst of a New Jersey snowstorm and when he took the governor's helicopter to see his son play baseball.

The governor then segued to an unexpected love sonnet to a press corps with whom he's had a particularly rocky relationship since the start of his tumultuous second term.

While taking aim at the reports about the beach house weekend, the governor no fewer than eight times expressed his appreciation for the New Jersey press corps.

"I know that we have our bickerings between us," Christie said. "But know that I appreciate the fact that you all sacrificed your weekend as well to do your job ... I can tell you guys that for the last number of days, I know you've brought effort. And I hope that you brought honesty, too. I suspect that you have."

Christie's conciliatory comments were remarkable not just in light of his global media drubbing, but for their juxtaposition with the actions of Christie's longtime friend, President Donald Trump.

On Sunday, Trump made headlines for re-tweeting a video in which he appears to pummel a WWE wrestler on whose head the CNN logo had been superimposed, entitled "Trump takes down fake news."

And in February, after more than a year of taunting, the president took the extraordinary step of branding the press "the enemy of the American people."

Claude Brodesser-Akner may be reached at cbrodesser@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @ClaudeBrodesser. Find NJ.com Politics on Facebook.