When New Jersey's budget failed to pass on Friday, many parks and beaches were Shut down for the weekend. As yesterday was the 4th of July, many residents had plans to go to state parks and beaches with their families.

The shutdown, which closed over a dozen parks over the holiday weekend, did not apply to Governor Chris Christie. The governor of the state has a residence at Island Beach, and he took advantage of the closed beach over the weekend to spend it in peace with his family. He was spotted on Island Beach, where anyone else who tried to enter was turned away by police.

This sparked quite a bit of anger in New Jersey residents.

Christie defends his family beach day

Christie had denied that he had gotten any sun over the weekend and when the aerial photos were released, he claimed that he didn't lie because he was wearing a hat on the beach. Residents did not like that answer.

Some people noticed that, in one of the pictures, Christie is looking right at the plane and knew that he was spotted. However, he did not own up to the beach day until the pictures were released.

Christie said that he cares about "right and wrong," and not about political optics. "If I have a choice to make between my family and political optics, then I'm gonna pick my family." He added: "That's our residence and we have a right to be there whenever we want to be there," Christie said. While this is true, residents thought it was wrong for Christie to order the beach closed only to have it to himself.

"Now, if they had flown that plane over that beach and I was sitting next to a 25-year-old blonde in that beach chair next to me, that's a story," he said. "I was sitting next to my wife of 31 years. If that's a scandal, that's a scandal I'm guilty of every day of my life."

The public reacts to Christie

On Monday, this banner was flown across a beach addressing Christie.

While some were concerned that this kind of corruption is specific to the Republican party, others believe it is a bigger issue.

While there were a few that did not see anything wrong with Christie lounging on what is technically his residence, the vast majority of people had negative reactions to his actions.

In fact, there was even a sand sculpture built by two New Jersey residents poking fun at Christie's beach lounging.

Trump lowered Christie's approval ratings

After a short-lived run for president in the 2016 election, Christie openly supported Donald Trump. This has resulted in a historically low approval rating of 15%. However, since Christie doesn't care about political optics, it probably doesn't bother him. Also, since his second term as governor is over in January 2018, he has nothing to lose.
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