"What he will be forever known for": Chris Christie beach photo resurfaces amid 2024 US Presidential faceoff with Donald Trump 

American politician Chris Christie has announced his candidacy for the 2024 presidential election against former president Donald Trump. On June 6, the 60-year-old personality spoke without a script at a town hall event in Manchester, New Hampshire, launching his campaign, and took sharp digs at Trump, after endorsing him in 2016.

“A lonely, self-consumed, self-serving mirror hog is not a leader. The person I am talking about who is obsessed with the mirror, who never admits a mistake, who never admits a fault is Donald Trump.”

Christie, who previously launched a presidential campaign in 2016 but dropped out and became an advisor to Trump before the 2020 election, said that his past support was a mistake and urged people to join him in defeating the former president.

“Beware of the leader in this country, who you have handed leadership to, who has never made a mistake, who has never done anything wrong, who when something goes wrong it’s always someone else’s fault. And who has never lost.”

In the Republican primary, where Donald Trump and Ron DeSantis are the undisputed front-runners, Christie also seems to recognize that he is a long shot.

“I’ll say to you tonight that I can’t guarantee you success in what I’m about to do. But I guarantee you that by the end of it you’ll have no doubt in your mind who I am and what I stand for and whether I deserve it. I intend to seek the Republican nomination for president of the United States in 2024, and I want your support.”

However, soon after Chris Christie announced his campaign, the internet began pointing out his 2017 Beach picture scandal while being the governor of New Jersey, with one of them commenting:

Screenshot of a Twitter user recalling Chris Christie's 2017 beach photo. (Image via @marc_lotter/Twitter)

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Chris Christie's beach photo drama explained

During July 2017, amidst Christie's governorship, New Jersey faced a budgetary delay resulting in a temporary shutdown of several government services, including state parks. One of the parks was home to a beach house belonging to the governor, and Christie had intended to take a brief family vacation there.

This came after he held a press conference ahead of his family getaway stating:

"The houses are the governor's houses and they are not asking for any services. Where down at the public part of the beach there are all types of services provided like lifeguarding services ... my family doesn't ask for any services."

Even though beaches were closed to the public, Chris Christie took his family for a weekend getaway.

By the end of the weekend, New Jersey's newspaper, The Star-Ledger, published an aerial picture of the politician, where he can be seen relaxing on a beach chair surrounded by his family. Chris Christie became the butt of many memes and jokes.

Later in July 2017, Christie told on New Jersey 101.5 radio station's Ask the Governor show that his family was most affected by the beach picture drama.

"They were more hurt by this latest episode than they've been hurt by anything else that has happened in the eight years. We had plans for months, a special celebration for our children and their friends."

However, he said he reassured them when they blamed themselves for the backlash and took the whole responsibility.

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After Chris Christie launched his campaign against Trump, the former President took to his social media handle, Truth Social, and slammed him for his past failures, stating "This time it won't be any different."

Christie's announcement comes less than two weeks after Ron DeSantis officially joined the Republican primary race and became the leading non-Trump candidate. Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina ran in the primary that same week. Mike Pence, who used to be Vice President, joined the fight on June 7.