Chris Christie in ABC This Week interviews during 2015

On Foreign Policy: Push Russia out of Middle East; establish US dominance

CHRISTIE: Well, we don't need to be friends with Vladimir Putin and we don't need to be worried about whether he's in a quagmire. After 40 years, we allowed Russia back into the Middle East. And now who are they partnered with? Iran.

Q: So how do you push them out?

CHRISTIE: America's got to re-establish its presence in that area. We should be the ones leading the fight on ISIS. And by the way, we know Putin's not fighting ISIS. Putin's there to prop up Assad.

Q: Would you put in a no-fly zone?

CHRISTIE: Absolutely. And I'll tell you this, there's now 300,000 nearly dead in Syria because of Assad and now Putin is going in and teaming with the Iranians to prop up Assad.

On Gun Control: Gun laws ineffective; focus on mental health

CHRISTIE: I don't think there is. But I'll tell you this, I'm very concerned about the mental health side of this. Let's do some tough things on mental health, let's make involuntary commitment of people who speak violently easier for doctors. I think that makes sense. But let's remember something else, in many of the places around this country where they have the toughest gun laws, they have the highest violent crime rates. Violence in America that's happened on our streets in our cities, like Chicago, up 19 percent, the murder rate. New York, up 11 percent. And you have some of the most aggressive gun laws in cities like that. So let's enforce the law.

On Education: Free college is ludicrous, but we can reduce the cost

CHRISTIE: My alternative is we have to start to put market forces on these college costs. I pay for two college tuitions right now, and I can tell you that they're the most opaque bills you'll ever see in your life. If you got that bill for dinner with that little of that detail, you wouldn't pay it. You'd send it back. Yet for college, we pay it.

Q: What would you do as president?

CHRISTIE: Universities need to start telling us exactly what they're spending the money we give them on. And secondly, we need to unbundle those costs. So if a child doesn't want to pay for all of these different things in college, they should be able to select it. That will tell colleges what they don't need to provide and we shouldn't have to pay for. These ideas will help to contain costs, but the concept of free college for everybody -- there's nothing free in this world. We need to earn what we get.