New Jersey governor with six months left in office is unrepentant as commentators say he has ‘simply stopped caring’

Even for a US state governor with six months left in office and an approval rating of just 15%, it was an unusually bold move.

First, you order a government shutdown that closes all state parks and beaches on the eve of the 4 July holiday weekend.

Then you take a police helicopter to the coast and spend a good chunk of Sunday soaking up the rays with your family on a pristine stretch of sand that – thanks to your order – you have entirely to yourselves.

However, the New Jersey governor, Chris Christie, was unrepentant. Asked about reports that his his family was staying at the state residence at Island Beach state park while it was closed to the public, Christie first denied he had benefited. “I didn’t get any sun,” he said.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Christie on the beach that was closed to the public. Photograph: Advance Media/Barcroft Images

Told of the existence of aerial pictures of the governor, dressed in shorts and a T-shirt, sitting on the beach with his wife, Mary Pat, son Andrew and other family members, his spokesman, Brian Murray, conceded Christie was “on the beach briefly”.

But Murray insisted: “He did not get any sun. He was wearing a baseball cap.”

On Saturday, Christie – once the darling of the Republican party and considered a top contender for the presidency – had defended his use of the residence. “That’s the way it goes,” he remarked. “Run for governor, and you can have the residence.”

On Sunday, he tried another tack: the residence was “where my family is sleeping” he said, “so that’s where I’ll sleep”.

Facing mounting criticism on Monday, he insisted he was simply sticking to his previously announced holiday plans. The media had “caught a politician keeping his word”, Christie said – adding that New Jersey had 120 miles of beaches so no one should be deprived.

The governor’s popularity ratings peaked at more than 70% when he was re-elected for a second term four years ago and he won widespread praise for his handling of Hurricane Sandy in 2012.

But they plummeted after it emerged his then aides had played a key role in the scandal of lane closures on the George Washington Bridge, and have fallen even further since since he pulled out of the US presidential race in February last year and endorsed Donald Trump.

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

Once considered a potential vice-president, Christie eventually lost out on that job to Mike Pence – who soon after the election also replaced the out of favour New Jersey governor at the head of Trump’s transition team.

A Quinnipiac University poll on 15 June gave Christie the lowest approval rating for any state governor ever recorded by the polling institute, with 81% of New Jersey respondents saying they did not rate the job he was doing.

His top deputy, Kim Guadagno, who is running to succeed him as governor in January, said on Monday that his decision to use the beach at the state park while it was closed to the public because of the government shutdown was “beyond words”.

Guadagno said that if taxpayers did not have access to state parks, she would not be “sitting on the beach”. Christie’s Democratic rival Phil Murphy also called on the governor to “get off the beach and get back to work”.

Christie ordered the shutdown of nonessential state services – public transport, the police service and hospitals remain open – on Friday after failing to agree on the state’s budget with the Democrat-controlled legislature.

Commentators were scathing about the governor’s latest escapade. “Either Christie is actively working to destroy any political future he might have,” said CNN’s Chris Cillizza, “or he has simply stopped caring. The latter option is more plausible.”

