New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie called the former White House physician who criticized his obesity last week to yell at her over the phone.
Christie called Connie Mariano, who now practices medicine in Arizona after she served as the White House physician for Presidents George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton, and George W. Bush, after the New Jersey governor told her to “shut up” at a press conference last Wednesday.
“It was essentially the tone of the press conference, only louder,” Mariano told 3TV in Arizona. “It was hard to get anything across. He wasn’t very nice to me.”
Mariano had revealed last week she was thinking of supporting Christie for the 2016 Republican nomination for president should Christie run, but Christie’s angry call has changed her mind.
“The way he acted lately I don’t think so,” the doctor who has observed three presidents in the White House said. “Politically, if this is the way (he handles) stress… is this presidential? I’ll have to think about that. Is this a presidential way to behave? C’mon.”
After Christie went on “The Late Show” with David Letterman and made fun of his weight by stuffing a doughnut into his mouth last week, Mariano said, in an interview with CNN, she was worried Christie would die in office if elected president and the weight issue would “haunt him” during a potential presidential campaign.
‘”I’m worried about this man dying in office,” she said. “I can understand why his doctors and other people have had trouble getting him to lose weight. This is an issue that will haunt him if he decides to run for office.”
Mariano also said she has received a lot of “hate mail” from Christie’s fans, but her assessment seems to not have differed from Christie’s doctor’s. Christie conceded last week his doctor continues to warm him that the New Jersey governor’s luck is “going to run out relatively soon” if he does not make some changes to his lifestyle.
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