Christie: That Beach Photo Had an Overlooked Angle

Shutdown stemmed over his push for opioids money; 'GQ' profiles his 'last fight'
By John Johnson,  Newser Staff
Posted Oct 23, 2017 10:35 AM CDT
Updated Oct 28, 2017 3:29 PM CDT
Chris Christie Is Pretty Happy With His 'Booby Prize'
New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie.   (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)

Chris Christie's political plummet has been well documented. The man once figured to be president is now merely an outgoing governor, and one of the most unpopular in the nation at that. And even though Christie quickly endorsed Donald Trump once the governor was out of the presidential race, he was passed over for a plum post in the administration and instead given the chairmanship of Trump's opioids commission. That relative crumb "has been dismissed by some as the ultimate booby prize," writes Jason Zengerle at GQ, but the magazine's profile of Christie suggests it's anything but. "For much of his governorship, Christie had been admirably proactive in (and progressive about) addressing the drug scourge," writes Zengerle, adding that Christie has put a particular focus on opioids during his final year in office.

In fact, Christie still sounds a little miffed that one thing lost in the controversy over the infamous photo of him on a state beach during a government shutdown is that the shutdown itself was triggered over his demand for $300 million for opioids treatment. (He would eventually get two-thirds of that.) The story recounts how Christie had been focusing on the issue long before he became governor, though it became personal when a friend fatally overdosed on Percocet in 2014. "One of the more traumatic moments of my life," says Christie, who had been part of the man's support network. Christie's panel has suggested a national strategy for Trump, who's expected to formally declare a national emergency on opioids as early as this week. Click for the full story, in which the governor says he doesn't think he'll run for office again. (More Chris Christie stories.)

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