Chris Christie Beach Picture

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About

Chris Christie Beach Picture refers to a controversial photograph of New Jersey Governor Chris Christie sunbathing with his family on an empty beach by the shore during a weekend-long shutdown of nonessential services provided by the state government, including public access to national parks and waterfronts, as ordered by Christie himself in late June 2017. The picture of the Republican governor lounging on a state-owned beach during the shutdown immediately drew intense criticism and ridicule on social media, soon inspiring photoshopped parodies and memes of Christie on the beach.

Origin

On June 30th, 2017, Governor Chris Christie signed an executive order, declaring a state of emergency due the state of New Jersey's failure to pass a budget before the constitutional deadline, effectively shutting down the government.^[1] The shutdown -- the second in state history -- closed various state services, such as motor vehicle services, courts, taxation offices, disability and family leave, travel centers and state parks and beaches, among other things.

On July 2nd, two days into the shutdown, the Star Ledger, New Jersey's largest newspaper, published photographs of Governor Christie and his family enjoying Island Beach State Park (shown below), one of the beaches closed by the shutdown order for the July 4th holiday weekend.

Spread

Shortly after the shutdown was announced, people began posting memes and jokes about the governor.

Late in the day of July 2nd, after the pictures of him on the beach hit the internet, Christie held a press conference regarding the shutdown, when a reporter asked if he got any sun.^[2] "I didn't," he said. "I didn't get any sun." When he was informed of the photograph, a spokesman said, "Yes, the governor was on the beach briefly today talking to his wife and family before heading into the office. He did not get any sun. He had a baseball hat on."

In the early evening of July 2nd, Vice President of Content for NJ Advance Media Kevin Whitmer^[3] tweeted the article and said, "We flew a plane over the Shore today and look who we found!" The tweet (shown below) received more than 950 retweets and 1,700 likes.

Shortly after, Twitter user @Bro_Pair tweeted the image of Christie on the beach from the article along with the caption, "The image of a grotesque Chris Christie sunning himself on an empty state beach he closed is an evocative metaphor for our era of politics." The tweet (shown below) became one of the most widely shared of the controversy, garnering more than 3,600 retweets and 7,500 likes in less than 24 hours.

Following the controversy, people began photoshopping Chris Christie into various other scenarios, such as on a bridge, into the TV show The Sopranos and other White House controversies (shown below).

Several news outlets covered the beach pictures and response, including The New York Times,^[4] CNN,^[5] The Atlantic^[6] and more. Twitter published a Moments page on the initial beach picture^[7] and the photoshops it inspired.^[8]