New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie is still catching heat from spending his weekend on a public beach he shut down because of a budget stalemate but said Monday he doesn't "care about political optics."
"I understand it's a holiday weekend," he said at a press conference announcing a deal to end the government shutdown, Mediaite reports, "and the news channels don't have anything else to cover."
Christie, a Republican, brushed off the widespread criticism and said he wasn't apologizing for spending time with his family at the state-owned Island Beach State Park. The Star-Ledger newspaper released the photos of Christie lounging on the beach with his family on Monday, sparking a national media firestorm.
The governor mocked the coverage.
"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. I wasn't sitting next to a 25-year-old blonde. 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 of my life – being committed to my wife and my children first."
He also said he wasn't going to cancel the outing because "[Assembly Speaker Vincent] Prieto couldn't get 41 votes for a budget."
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