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Chris Christie Got Up In Heckler's Face Because 'If You Give It, You're Gonna Get It Back'
By
Jen Chung
Published Aug 1, 2017
Modified Aug 1, 2017
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By
Jen Chung
Published Aug 1, 2017
Modified Aug 1, 2017
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After discussing the nation's opioid epidemic yesterday, CNN's Jake Tapper made sure to ask NJ Governor Chris Christie what everyone wanted to know: Why did you tell off a Chicago Cubs fan? Christie explained, "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."
The governor was at Sunday's Milwaukee Brewers game—his son Andrew works for the Brewers operations team—when Cubs fan Brad Joseph heckled him. Joseph told WISN, "When he initially was going up the stairs I yelled his name. He was already quite a bit past me, and 30 feet away I yelled his name and told him that he sucked. ... I called him a hypocrite because I thought it needed to be said. He then turned around and walked all the way back towards me and got up in my face for what seemed like a long time, but was probably only about 30 seconds or a minute."
Christie had a different recollection: "When somebody swears at you publicly and says some really awful things with children around—my own with —I took it the first time he said it. (He) yelled it from about 15 yards and said some really lousy, awful stuff. And 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 this was at my town halls meetings or any place else, if you're gonna give it, you're gonna get it back," he continued. "And I think that was a very mellow reaction from a New Jersey governor to just say 'You're a real big shot.'"
Joseph decided to also give his side of the exchange (again), but this time on Facebook. In a lengthy post, he wrote, "Many people on social media have assumed that I must be a liberal or democrat, but I want to be clear that this was not about republicans or democrats. I am a registered republican and I voted for Donald Trump, but my politics do not fit conveniently into one box or another."
He also wanted to address accusations that he wimped out, "To anyone who wants to claim I backed down, all I'd say is that I'm not going to punch a sitting governor when I know there are federal agents assigned to protect him standing behind me no matter how much he provokes me. If Chris Christie wants to fight fair, Tuff 'n' Uff, the premier amateur mixed martial arts group, has already agreed to put on an event sanctioned by the Nevada Athletic Commission. I'll agree to compete under any standard rules you want, whether its MMA, boxing, freestyle, folkstyle, or greco-roman wrestling. Just let me know if you still want to make this physical. You won't even have to cut any weight. I doubt you'll agree to it, but McGregor-Mayweather surprised us all."
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Jen Chung
Jen Chung is a former WNYC and Gothamist editor.
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