A nurse who threatened to sue New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) for involuntarily quarantining her in a Newark hospital may have left the state, but the two are still trading blows in a war of words.
Christie was blunt in dismissing Kaci Hickox’s potential lawsuit Tuesday during a campaign stop in Rhode Island, a day after he agreed to release her from Ebola quarantine so that she could serve out the rest of it at her home in Maine.
“Whatever. Get in line,” he said, as quoted by NBC News. “I’ve been sued lots of times before. Get in line. I’m happy to take it on.”
The governor also shot down Hickox’s complaints about her treatment. The nurse had told CNN that her isolation tent at the hospital had no shower, no flushable toilet and no television or reading material.
“She was inside the hospital in a climate-controlled area with access to her cellphone, access to the Internet and takeout food from the best restaurants in Newark,” Christie said, as quoted by NBC News. “She was doing just fine.”
Hickox is now saying that she’ll go to court to fight for her freedom if Maine doesn’t lift its at-home quarantine restrictions by Thursday morning.
“I am not going to sit around and be bullied by politicians and forced to stay in my home when I am not a risk to the American public,” she said on NBC’s “Today.”
