Chris Christie in Fox News Sunday interviews during 2015

On Drugs: Allow private sector to offer drug treatment programs

CHRISTIE: No, a few things. First off, more people are getting drug treatment today in New Jersey than ever before. We have 21 drug courts in all 21 of our counties. Secondly, I don't want this to be purely a government solution. By putting more money into our treatment budget we allow the private sector to come in to be able to provide this kind of treatment.

On Drugs: Treatment, not jail, for drug addicts; it's a disease

CHRISTIE: My larger point, is that this is a disease. People who are committing violent acts, who are dealing drugs, they need to go to prison. But for the addicts, the people who are small-time users, we need to give them treatment. Although, I'm opposed to drug legalization.

On Energy & Oil: Keystone pipeline would have minimal environmental impact

CHRISTIE: Interesting, the president is interested in global leadership, and the only thing he's interested in global leadership on is a radical environmental liberal policy, which is what he's doing. Did anybody think for the last seven years he was ever going to approve it? Despite the fact that the State Department said it won't have a big environmental impact, and so does the EPA administrator. This president is a radical environmental liberal. And when I'm president, we'll build the Keystone pipeline if the Canadians are still interested.

On Free Trade: Supports free trade, but distrusts Obama's TPP agreement

CHRISTIE: I don't trust this president to negotiate any deal. And that's what my answer was, to say I don't trust this president negotiating a deal. I wouldn't let this president buy me a car, that's how bad a negotiator he is. So, I will not support TPP as negotiated by this president, because I'm convinced it will be just as bad as the Iranian nuclear deal.

On Abortion: Successfully defunded Planned Parenthood in New Jersey

CHRISTIE: In New Jersey, six years ago, I defunded Planned Parenthood. And I made it stick. We've viewed it 8 different times in New Jersey, and we've made that veto stick each and every time, despite veto override attempts.

Q: But here you've got a Democratic executive who would veto if Congress were somehow to pass a budget that defunded Planned Parenthood.

CHRISTIE: Maybe we should test the president, because in the end, we haven't done anything yet in Congress to test him. I think we should be putting it on his desk. I think we should be passing repeal and replacement of ObamaCare and putting it one his desk. Let the United States people see who is the real obstructionist in Washington DC.

On Civil Rights: Churches can use sexual orientation; businesses can't

CHRISTIE: Religious institutions should be able to decide how they conduct their religious activity. The rest of the folks in the United States need to follow the law. We need to enforce the law in this country in every respect, not just the laws we like, but all the laws. This way we won't have sanctuary cities in this country when I'm president of the United States, and we won't have people getting high on marijuana in Colorado and Washington if the federal law says you shouldn't.

On Health Care: Opposes expanding Medicaid nationally, did expand it in NJ

CHRISTIE: I expanded Medicaid because it was right for New Jersey, because I had had three liberal Democratic governors before me, and so in expanding Medicaid we actually made money in New Jersey and lowered our costs in emergency rooms across the state.

On Immigration: Use modern technology to track illegal immigrants

CHRISTIE: They're not, my point was that this is again a situation where the private sector laps us in the government with the use of technology. Let's use the same type of technology to make sure that 40 percent of the 11 million people here illegally don't overstay their visas. If FedEx can do it, why can't we use the same technology? And we should bring in the folks from FedEx to use the technology to be able to do it. There's nothing wrong with that. And I don't mean people are packages.

On Social Security: Cut Social Security for wealthy, but don't increase taxes

CHRISTIE: They're not telling the truth. I guess the alternative could be, that they want a massive tax increase on the American people. If they want, that's fine. Here's my attitude about it, you have two choices--either get rid of some benefits for the very wealthiest in America who don't need a Social Security check, or you can give the government that's already lied to us and stolen from the trust fund more of your money. I don't want to give the government more of our money so they can lie more to us and steal more from us.

On Government Reform: Reform instead of tax increases

So we need to reform these programs and we can do it and we can do it in a way that's not going to throw anybody off the cliff.

On Government Reform: Does not support electing Supreme Court justices

CHRISTIE: No. I don't think we should elect Supreme Court Justices. What we do in New Jersey, which I think is something that folks can consider is we appoint our justices for a seven-year term. And then after seven years, the governor has the opportunity to again consider whether to nominate them then for a lifetime tenure. I don't want to see judges raising money and running for election. I would, though, trust the executive after seven years, like we do in New Jersey, to decide whether or not to reappoint people. I'm the first governor in New Jersey's constitutional history to not reappoint two supreme court justices. I wanted to go in another direction. That can work. I've done it in New Jersey. But I don't believe we should be putting judges on the ballot. I just disagree with Senator Cruz.

On Homeland Security: Gathering metadata is necessary for homeland security

CHRISTIE: I've had to review applications under the PATRIOT Act. I know what it's like to interact with the FISA court. We can do this and protect civil liberties. And, of course, we want to track terrorists' phone numbers. We're not listening to anybody's conversations. We're not looking at their emails without the type of search warrants that the court is talking about. What we're saying, though, is, if you're a known terrorist outside this country, and you're calling numbers inside this country, we'd like to know who those people are.

Q: What do you say to those that feel that their government may have them under attack?

CHRISTIE: We should engage in vigorous congressional oversight over our intelligence community, and our Justice Department should prosecute any intelligence officer who violates the law. We have those safeguards available to us.

On Immigration: Increase electronic border surveillance and create E-Verify

Christie: To build a wall across our entire southern border, that's a simple politician's answer. My plan for the border would be multi-fold. First, it would be to use the [right] type of walling or fencing in certain areas. Second would be to use the type of electronic surveillance that we have available to us both through drones and through other electronic surveillance on the border. Third, of course, is to use Border Patrol officers to be able to do it. And fourth, and most important, is that require every employer in America to use E-Verify. Because these folks are coming to work. And if they're not able to be employed if they come here illegally, if every employer uses E-Verify and if they violate the law, there are fines that are so significant that the profit they make off hiring lower-wage workers and discriminating against American workers won't be worth their while. You'll see a real diminishment of anybody trying to come over the southern border