ABC News - Chris Christie speaks to George Stephanopoulos lyrics

STEPHANOPOULOS: OK, Terry, thank very much. Let's take this right to Governor Chris Christie. First, congratulations on your win Tuesday. You have heard these reports out of Geneva. Secretary Kerry still optimistic. Benjamin Netanyahu calling the deal dangerous. Where do you come down this? What would you need to see from Iran in order to support relieving sanctions? CHRISTIE: Well, you know, George, I have to tell you something, I think there are people who are significantly better briefed on this than I am as the governor of New Jersey. And I think it's dangerous for folks like me to get involved in the middle of this and start giving opinions. Listen, we have to let Secretary Kerry do his work. And then once we see the produce of that work, we can all make a judgment. But, right now, I'm not briefed well enough to be able to give an opinion. STEPHANOPOULOS: But can you support a deal that allows Iran to continue to enrich uranium? CHRISTIE: Yeah, George, listen, I'm the governor of New Jersey. And I think for me to be expressing opinions on this this morning would be ill-advised. And I'm not going to do it. STEPHANOPOULOS: OK, then let's turn to your win on Tuesday. Already, your potential rivals, if you decide to run in 2016, are out there praising your big win in the state, but also questioning, I guess, how well you're going to travel. When Rand Paul was asked if you're the man to beat in 2016, he called you a moderate and then he added this... (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) SEN. RAND PAUL, (R) KENTUCKY: You know, I think the party in general is more conservative. I think there's room for moderates in the party. I think it will be more difficult, states like Iowa are very conservative, South Carolina is very conservative, New Hampshire I think is conservative with a little bit of a libertarian bend. (END VIDEO CLIP) STEPHANOPOULOS: He said that it's a tough road for you, is he right? So is he right? Can you play in places like Iowa and South Carolina? CHRISTIE: I'm playing in New Jersey. And that's what I care about, George. At the end of the day, what did we see in New Jersey on Tuesday? 61 percent of the votes statewide in a state that President Obama won by 17 points just a year ago. The fact is, nearly a 40 percent turnaround from a Democratic top of the ticket to a Republican. Majority of the Hispanic vote, nearly tripling our vote among African-Americans. And here's why, because they looked at the record, 143,000 new private sector jobs, $2.3 billion in business tax cuts, spending less this year in fiscal 2014 than in did in fiscal '08, 100 year tenure reform for teachers, and reforming a pension and benefit system to save $120 billion. People voted on the record of what we have done. I'm proud of it. And how that plays anyplace else is for all the Washington pundits to figure out. I'm the governor of New Jersey. That's my job. And that's why I asked for four more years. And that's what I intend to do. STEPHANOPOULOS: All four years? CHRISTIE: Listen, who knows. I don't know. I'm going to continue to do my job and finish the job. But everybody who is trying to figure out what life is going to bring you a few years from now, I didn't expect to be sitting here four years ago, George. So, nobody can make those predictions. STEPHANOPOULOS: One issue that's sure to come up is immigration. You mentioned that you got a majority of the Latino vote in your re-election. And you're for a path to citizenship. You also said that undocumented students in New Jersey should get in-state tuition rates. Do you think other states should adopt that policy as well? CHRISTIE: Listen, I think nationally, they have to fix a broken system. And I think this is one of the real frustrations that people across the country have on this and a myriad of other issues is they look at what governors do, like in New Jersey, where we confront problems, we debate them, we argue about them, then we get to a table, we come to an agreement, we fix them and we move on. And in Washington, that seems to almost never happens. And so I think, listen, everybody has got to sit at a table, everyone is going to have a point of view on immigration, and a myriad of other issues. Well, let's have our argument out publicly, then let's get to the table, come to a consensus and then move on. STEPHANOPOULOS: So -- but do you think that national solution should include both a path to citizenship and that relief on in-state college tuition? CHRISTIE: I think the national solution has to be -- has to be figured out by the people who are in charge of our national government. My job is to fix what's going on in New Jersey. But I will tell you this, George, we're not going to be able to fix all the things we need in New Jersey until national leaders set a national immigration policy. That's federal law, federal policy that needs to be fixed. It's a broken system, it's not working for the economy, it's not working for the individuals who are affected by it. It's not working for the governments. So we need to get them in a room, the president needs to lead and members of congress need to do it, too. And if they do that, then I think it will help our economy and help our country if we get to some resolution. STEPHANOPOULOS: Including a path to citizenship? CHRISTIE: George, I don't get to make those determinations, the folks in Washington, D.C. STEPHANOPOULOS: But you get to have an opinion. CHRISTIE: Well, listen, I can have an opinion about lots of things, George, but we're not going to go through all that this morning are we? It's 2013 and I just got elected the governor of New Jersey again. So, the fact is, I have already said what I believe, which is it's a broken system and it needs to be fixed. Now let's get to work doing it. And to the extent they want contributions from governors based on our the ground experience, I'm happy to contribute to that debate and discussion. But right now, there's nothing going on. STEPHANOPOULOS: There's also been a lot of questions about the president's health care plan. You called on him to apologize this week. He seemed to take your advice, a couple of days later he did apologize for people who were getting their health plans canceled. What should he do next? Are you for delay in further implementation of the law? CHRISTIE: Listen, anybody who has run anything in their lives could see this coming a mile away. And that's why we didn't do a state based health exchange. We didn't do it because we could see that this whole program was going to be a problem. And so that the president's biggest problem right now is he's got to tell the truth and we have seen this in New Jersey. I have told a lot of hard truths in New Jersey that people didn't necessarily agree with, but they give you credit for looking them in the eye and telling them the truth. So let's get to that point, let's own up, tell the truth about what's going on. Then they can worry about whether he can work something out to fix the problem. But if you're working out of a fantasy that these are not major problems that need to be fixed, and need to be addressed, this is what lots of us have been saying all along about the fact that this was just too big for the government to handle. STEPHANOPOULOS: You didn't set up an exchange, but you did accept the expansion of Medicaid under Obamacare. And some, again, of your potential rivals like Ted Cruz are going to come after you on that. What's your answer? CHRISTIE: I do what's best for the people in the state of New Jersey every day. And expanding Medicaid in the state of New Jersey, given how expansive our program already was, it was a relatively small expansion. But it's going to mean a lot. And it's also going to benefit New Jersey's budget. See, here's what makes me different than a lot of these other guys, I'm going to do what I think is right for the people who elected me. And a lot of these folks are always trying to put their figure in the wind and see which way the wind is blowing that day. My job is to run the state of New Jersey. That's what I do every day. And the fact is, George, when you do that, people across the spectrum give you credit. And that's what the elections results, 61 percent of the vote on Tuesday, show. STEPHANOPOULOS: It was a sweeping win. You're also in the news this week, because of this book "Double Down" about the 2012 campaign. And one of the authors, John Heilemann, is on our roundtable. Extension section on the Romney vice presidential search process. They leaked your file. Never seen that happen before. And had concerns about a number of things in your background, including this pa**age on the man who supervised your background check. A guy named Ted Newton. And he says this -- he says, there are people -- "now surveying the sum and substance of what the team was finding, Newton told his colleagues if Christie had been in the nomination fight against us, we would have destroyed him. He wouldn't be able to run for governor again. When you look below the surface, Newton said, it's not pretty." I know you think that all of these issues have been vetted. But a possible run for president brings a whole 'nother level of scrutiny, are you prepared for that? CHRISTIE: George, listen, first off, political advice from people who ran the Romney campaign, is probably something nobody should really give a darn about. Let's start with that. But secondly, all of these issues have been vetted. And if I ever run for anything again, they'll be vetted again. If you're in public life, that's what you have to understand. But listen to Governor Romney, and what Governor Romney said when he spoke last week was that none of this caused him any pause at all. And so I'll take Mitt Romney's interpretation of all this rather than some, you know, paid political consultant, who was trying to make himself famous, obviously, in the book. STEPHANOPOULOS: Finally, you saw that Time magazine cover this week. We're going to show it right there. "The elephant in the room." Did that bother you at all or did you think it was clever? CHRISTIE: You know, George, if I'm bothered by jokes about my weight, it's time for me to crawl up into a fetal position and go home. OK? The fact is, that, you know, if they think it's clever, great for them. I mean, they run the magazine. They get to make the positions. Here's the thing -- the way the people of New Jersey look at this, their governor has been on the cover of Time magazine twice in one year. We must be doing something right. And the fact is that they reaffirmed what we did, and what our strategy was for the last four years. Go everywhere, show up, govern and make decisions. Not just go to the places where they vote for you, but go to the places where they haven't voted for you. I did a town hall in Irvington, New Jersey, 4.7 percent of the vote is what I got in 2009. When I did it at this Baptist church, there were more people in the church than voted for me from that town in 2009. You go places where people need to hear you, and more importantly, you need to hear them. That's the way you grow and expand the political movement. That's how you get the kind of numbers we got on Tuesday night. People in New Jersey are proud of me. Whatever they put on the cover of Time magazine, as long as my name is with it, I could care less. STEPHANOPOULOS: And wherever you go the next few years, a lot of people are going to be following you. Governor Christie, thanks very much. CHRISTIE: George, thank you.