Christie’s stare stirs mockery, confusion

Associated Press

TRENTON, N.J.

Was that really Chris Christie, the brusque, take-a-back-seat-to-nobody governor of New Jersey?

Christie’s seemingly shell-shocked gaze as he stood behind Donald Trump on Super Tuesday generated morning-after befuddlement and mockery in his home state and beyond.

Conservatives and liberals alike piled on.

His expression was so grave and his introduction of Trump so subdued that many people joked on the Internet that he looked like a hostage reading a coerced statement. “Gov. Christie, blink twice if you’re in trouble!” one person tweeted.

In a move that shocked nearly everyone, especially in Democratic-leaning New Jersey, Christie endorsed his fellow Republican Trump last week and has appeared at the billionaire businessman’s side at campaign appearances over the past few days.

But after Tuesday night’s appearance, conservative commentator Jonah Goldberg of the anti-Trump National Review imagined Christie was thinking: “My God what have I done?” Others saw the same thing in Christie’s thousand-yard stare.

Footage of Christie’s stunned look, set to the jaunty theme song from HBO’s “Curb Your Enthusiasm,” became a sensation online Wednesday. And Washington Post blogger Alexandra Petri wrote an extended riff about how Christie was “screaming wordlessly” as Trump spoke and had “the glazed and terrified look of someone who has traded his inheritance for no pottage at all.”

Christie’s office declined to comment on his appearance.

Aside from Tuesday night, Christie appears to be fully embracing his surrogate duties. He has introduced Trump at a number of enthusiastic rallies and has been the front-runner’s attack dog, sinking his teeth into Sen. Marco Rubio and vouching for Trump and his family.

Back home, the reaction has been fierce.

Republican Christine Todd Whitman, the former New Jersey governor and Environmental Protection Agency administrator, told The Star-Ledger of Newark last week she would rather vote for Hillary Clinton than Trump.

Six Gannett newspapers in New Jersey said he isn’t fit to be governor any more. They called him a political opportunist who has neglected his duties in the Garden State, and urged him to resign.