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Chris Christie Says He's Not Too Overweight To Be President
By
Jen Chung
Published Dec 12, 2012
Modified Dec 12, 2012
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By
Jen Chung
Published Dec 12, 2012
Modified Dec 12, 2012
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NJ Governor Chris Christie will be on Barbara Walters' The 10 Most Fascinating People of 2012 program tonight (9:31 p.m., ABC), and ABC News' story explains, "Chris Christie, New Jersey's bombastic governor, found himself literally in the eye of the storm when two of this year's biggest news stories -- the presidential election and superstorm Sandy -- collided. Christie's unique role in both of those events along with his outsized personality earned him a spot on Barbara Walter's list." And of course she asked about his weight.
Walters mentions how some people think he's too overweight to be president, to which he responded, "That’s ridiculous. I don’t know what the basis for that is." He did say he was overweight, though. According to CityRoom:
Ms. Walters said that people were concerned about his health and that people who were overweight were more prone to health problems like heart disease and diabetes.
But the governor noted his work after Hurricane Sandy struck New Jersey, when he appeared all over the state in his now familiar fleece jacket (he wore one to mock himself on “Saturday Night Live”) and won a huge bump in his public approval rating, even among Democrats.
“I think people watched me for the last number of weeks and Hurricane Sandy doing 18-hour days and getting right back up the next day and still being just as effective in the job,” he told Ms. Walters. “So I don’t really think that would be a problem.”
As for dieting, he says he's "had more diets and lost and gained back more weight in my lifetime than I care to count. It's something I'm in the midst of trying to work on now. It's something you work on all the time."
Oh, and for the record, while Christie really loved President Obama during Hurricane Sandy, he still told Barry, "I said, you know, I'm not voting for you. And he said, 'I never thought you were.'"
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Chris Christie
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Jen Chung
Jen Chung is a former WNYC and Gothamist editor.
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