Chris Christie Tricked Into Making Video For Montana Democrat

MENDHAM, NJ - Fresh from his battle with COVID-19 former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie was feeling well enough to make a Cameo video, unwittingly supporting Montana Democrat Mike Cooney's campaign for governor.

Cooney's campaign paid Christie $200 through the company Cameo, to get the former Republican candidate for president to record a personalized video for their "buddy Greg" not revealing it was Greg Gianforte, the incumbent in the Montana race.

Cameo has a list of celebrities and politicians available to record personal messages at a preset price. The money Christie makes off of his Cameo videos is donated to the Center for Great Expectations, a mental health and substance abuse treatment center.

The request came in as a "pep talk" where Christie was asked to convince Greg to return to Jersey.

Christie posted a screenshot of the request to social media.

So Christie was unaware of the particulars when he recorded the video for "Greg" and attempted to cajole him into returning to the Garden State.

Here is the full message he recorded:

“Think about everything we got back here. We got Taylor ham. We’ve got Bruce Springsteen. We’ve got Jon Bon Jovi. We’ve got the Jersey Shore. We’ve got the boardwalks," Christie said. "“We’ve got all that stuff back here that is waiting for you, but more than anything else, Mike and your whole family, they want you back here."

Gianforte does have strong ties to New Jersey, having graduated from the Stevens Institute for Technology and launching his career at Bell Labs in the 1980s. He moved to Montana in 1995.

Gianforte made national headlines in 2017 when he body slammed journalist Ben Jacobs. He was convicted in June 2017 and paid $385 fine and sentenced to 40 hours of community service and 20 hours of anger management.

For his part, Christie was not amused at the stunt.

"I am doing Cameo to benefit a NJ charity that shelters & treats drug & alcohol addicted pregnant women & they send this misleading request and then push it out," Christie wrote on Twitter.

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