New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, who already lashed out publicly over Dr. Connie Mariano’s assertion that his obesity could kill him, apparently also called her at home to give her some one-on-one verbal abuse.
It all started when Christie made a recent appearance on The David Letterman Show eating a donut. The entire interview can be seen below:
Dr. Connie Mariano, who served as a White House doctor during the entirety of Bill Clinton’s presidency, offered her opinions on Christie’s weight. She gave this statement to CNN on Wednesday:
I worry that he may have a heart attack, he may have a stroke. It’s almost like a time bomb waiting to happen unless he addresses those issues before running for office.
Christie fired back with a statement he made at a news conference Thursday in New Jersey:
If she wants to get on a plane and come here to New Jersey and ask me if she wants to examine me and review my medical history I will have a conversation with her about that. Until that time she should shut up.
He continued his comments with these sarcastic words:
She must be a genius. She should probably be the surgeon general of the United States, I suspect, because she must be a genius. I think this is — listen, this is just another hack who wants five minutes on TV.
Mariano reportedly spoke to 3TV and told them that Christie called her himself and gave her a verbal lashing:
It was essentially the tone of the press conference only louder. It was hard to get anything across. I don’t think he realized who he was talking to. I think I’m qualified to make a comment.
Mariano, a Republican, had supposedly been a Christie supporter but now claims to doubt his composure. She told 3TV that her hopes for a Christie presidential run in 2016 have been damaged:
Is this presidential? I’ll have to think about that. Is this a presidential way to behave? C’mon.
Christie is riding a whopping 70 percent approval rating in New Jersey and is a leading candidate to run for president in 2016. Analysis of his long-term health prospects therefore has political merit, yet it still basically boils down to calling him a fatso.
Estimates of Christie’s weight have ranged as high as 500 pounds. His opponent in the Jersey gubernatorial race, Jon Corzine, ran radio ads about Christie “throwing his weight around.” They backfired. The guv has generally rolled with the punches and often pokes fun at himself, hence the donut-eating bit on Letterman.