New Jersey Governor Chris Christie was left apologizing and finding another seat on an Amtrak train out of Washington this weekend when he upset other passengers by talking too loudly on his cell phone in the designated quite car.
The New Jersey Governor and GOP candidate, who was in Washington D.C. for a Sunday morning appearance on CBS’s “Face the Nation,” was leaving on the 9:55AM train when the incident occurred. According to a witness, Christie was heard loudly saying things like “this is frickin’ ridiculous” and “seriously?! seriously?!” into his cell phone.
The incident was first reported Sunday afternoon by a gossip website that insisted that Christie was thrown off the Amtrak train, but sources noted that the governor apologized to the car and simply changed his seat to another part of the train.
Christie spokesperson Samantha Smith said that the governor had taken a seat in the quiet car, unaware of the car’s designation and jumped on a business call. But as soon as he realized he had “broken the cardinal rule of the quiet car,” he left on his own and changed seats to another part of the train.
Smith offered passengers the governor’s sincere apologies.
“On a very full train this morning, the Governor accidentally took a seat in Amtrak’s notorious quiet car,” Smith said in a statement. “After breaking the cardinal rule of the quiet car, the Governor promptly left once he realized the serious nature of his mistake and enjoyed the rest of his time on the train from the cafe car. Sincere apologies to all the patrons of the quiet car that were offended.”
Despite previous accounts, another passenger in the quiet car corroborated the governor’s version of events, saying that Christie was not as obnoxious as earlier reports made him out to be.
Listen. I’m no @ChrisChristie fan, but this @Gawker story isn’t close to accurate. He was sitting at my table. https://t.co/7hVBxvoaSs
— Katie Klabusich (@Katie_Speak) October 25, 2015
About the @Gawker fail: @ChrisChristie was super courteous & possibly the least intrusive in-public phone person ever.
— Katie Klabusich (@Katie_Speak) October 25, 2015
Obvi he was running late coming from a thing & got on the 1st open car, not realizing it was the quiet car b/c diff location on express.
— Katie Klabusich (@Katie_Speak) October 25, 2015
“You’re kidding. It’s the quiet car? Alright” & to the phone “I gotta go, I’m in the quiet car. Call you back.”
— Katie Klabusich (@Katie_Speak) October 25, 2015
Follow Warner Todd Huston on Twitter @warnerthuston, or email the author at igcolonel@hotmail.com.
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