New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie said he had no regrets about confronting a heckler at a major league baseball game in Milwaukee, telling CNN that "public officials are public servants, but they're not meant to be public punching bags."
The incident, which was partially caught on video, occurred when Christie was in Milwaukee visiting his son, who works for the Brewers.
The governor explained that he took the heckling the first time, but then "I came back after ignoring him the first time and he went in for seconds. Well, if you go in for seconds, I've always said this whether it was at my town hall meetings or anyplace else: If you give it, you're gonna get it back. And I think that was a very mellow reaction from a New Jersey governor to just say 'You're a real big shot.'"
Christie emphasized that it was wrong for "somebody to swear at you publicly and say some really awful things with a lot of children sitting around and my own son with me."
He said this was especially so because "I'm at a ball game with my son enjoying the game, having no interaction with anybody on public policy or anything else, I don't think it's the right of anybody to stand up and swear at you and curse you out."
Christie compared the incident to a sharp exchange he had with a critic on a New Jersey boardwalk during his first year in office, saying "I've gone through this before on the boardwalk and other places. I've always had the same response: I'll ignore it when it first happens, but if you persist then you're going to get a reaction."