Chris Christie Sticks To Domestic Issues On 'Face The Nation'
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- In his appearance Sunday on CBS's "Face the Nation" newly re-elected New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie sounded at times like a 2016 presidential candidate -- and at other times he didn't.
When asked by hostess Norah O'Donnell for his opinion about negotiations to freeze Iran's nuclear program that have fallen apart, Christie responded: "I'm the governor of New Jersey, and I think there are a lot of people you can have and probably will have on the program who are significantly better briefed on this than I am. And I think when guys like me start to shoot off on opinions about this kind of stuff, it's really ill-advised."
The Republican, however, was quick to chime in about immigration, the president's health care overhaul and partisan gridlock.
Echoing sentiments he made during his victory speech Tuesday night, Christie said Washington should pay attention to how New Jersey is being governed.
"The lesson is to govern and to show up," he said. " ... On governing, it's about doing things, accomplishing things, reaching across the aisle and crafting accomplishments. And ours, I think, are significant."
Christie touted the state's job growth, spending cuts and and reforms of teacher tenure and the pension and benefits system.
"And showing up -- what I mean by that is you can just show up six months before an election into groups that have not normally voted for you and expect that they are going to vote for you," Christie said.
Noting that Christie won support from 51 percent of Hispanic voters, O'Donnell asked the governor if the GOP should place an emphasis on passing immigration reform within the next 14 months.
"I think that they have to fix a broken immigration system because it's what's right for our country and what's good for our economy," Christie responded.
Christie added that Americans are frustrated that there are obvious problems that need to be resolved, but partisan politics is standing in the way.
"They look at a place like New Jersey where we're not using divided government as an excuse not to act," he said. "We get together, we argue, we fight, we debate, but then we get around a table and we conclude the argument by getting things done. And they're not doing that in Washington."
When asked about the difficulties President Barack Obama is facing with the rollout of his signature health care law, Christie said that the president needs to address the problems head-on by being truthful with Americans.
Christie then took a shot at the law.
"That's why I didn't do a state-based exchange in New Jersey to implement in Obamacare because anyone who's managed anything or run anything over the course of their careers could see that this was a train wreck," he said. "And I was not going to get the people of New Jersey involved in this train wreck in that way."
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