Chris Christie Says He Doesn’t Sympathize With Ted Cruz: He Was ‘Making Fun of Me’ Over Beach Photo

Former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie doesn’t have much sympathy for Ted Cruz right now.

Given all the criticism of Ted Cruz going to Cancun in the middle of the massive winter storm in Texas, people recalled how Christie was busted at the beach during a New Jersey state government shutdown. Christie was mercilessly mocked at the time and he tried to brush aside the controversy by saying he doesn’t care about political optics.

And one of the many memes people made about Cruz included Photoshopping the Texas senator into the photo of the former New Jersey governor on the beach.

Playa del Bad Ideas. pic.twitter.com/7EPMS2NFTY

— Helen Kennedy (@HelenKennedy) February 18, 2021

Fox News’ Guy Benson spoke with Christie on his radio program Friday, and they talked about the political heat facing Cruz and Andrew Cuomo for very different reasons.

Benson said Cruz clearly showed bad judgment, but added he thinks it’s starting to get “beaten to death” in the press.

But he also asked Christie about that meme and whether he has sympathy for Cruz.

Here’s how Christie responded:

“Listen, I have I have sympathy for anyone in public life with a family who faces those kind of really difficult decisions on a regular basis, and I face them a couple of times when I was governor. And I made mistakes at times because I was thinking more like a father than about the full-time job that I had. So I have sympathy in that. But I will tell you that, you know, it’s hard to have sympathy for Ted Cruz because, you know, Ted was right on board making fun of me back in 2017 when I had that incident on the beach. And that’s why I think you’re seeing piling on.”

Christie said people are piling on Cruz not just because the media enjoys piling on Republicans, but also because “Ted has just not been a very likable guy.”

You can listen above, via Fox News Radio.