Christie Says He Was ‘Very Restrained’ When He Confronted Cubs Fan

After a confrontation with a Cubs fan at a Milwaukee Brewers game over the weekend, New Jersey Governor Chris Christie said his response was more tame than it could have been.

“For those of you who know me, I was very restrained. I didn’t dump the nachos on him or anything, which I think was an option,” he said, during a news conference in Trenton, N.J.

Christie was recently recorded stooping down to get in the face of a Cubs fan and calling the man a “big shot.”

The fan, Brad Joseph, said the governor confronted him after he had heckled Christie, calling him a “hypocrite” and shouting “you suck.” Christie claims that was the only altercation he got into at the weekend baseball games with his son, who works for the Brewers, and said he took about “200 pictures” with fans in the stands.

“When I’m at a baseball game with my son on a Sunday afternoon, I do have a right to sit there and enjoy the game,” he said. “You get one shot to call me a name or curse me out. And I gave him that first shot to do that, but when you go at it a second time, you’re going to get a response.”

The baseball game run-in is just one of several incidents in the past month that have brought the governor negative attention.

In July he was photographed on a public beach with his family, even though the beach was closed after the government had shut down because of a stalemate between Christie and his state’s legislature.

Also last month, he auditioned for a spot on a live sports talk radio show and called a caller a “communist” for asking about the beach incident.

At a New York Mets game, he was booed by fans when he caught a foul ball.

Christie — who has a 15 percent approval rating, according to a Monmouth University Poll —  can’t seek reelection because his term limit is up in January.