New Jersey governor Chris Christie’s office just sent out the video and transcript of his appearance on “Late Night with Jimmy Fallon.” It went well, almost entirely lighthearted banter about New Jersey and its rivalry with New York, but Christie once again denied having any interest in being president or vice president (at least anytime soon), and when asked whether Sarah Palin could become president, evaded, “Who knows, Jimmy. It’s an amazing world.”
The interview:
And Christie’s participation in a regular Fallon segment, “Pros and Cons”:
The transcript, below the fold:
[Note that the misspelling of “governor” is in the original NBC transcript.]
JIMMY FALLON: Welcome back. In January, our next guest was sworn in as the 55th governor of New Jersey. All the way from across the Hudson River, please welcome the Garden State’s own Governor Chris Christie, everybody.
[ Cheers and Applause ]
JIMMY FALLON: Thank you. Thank you for coming on the show. I appreciate it because I — we just recently started talking to each other over twitter.
NEW JERSEY GOVENROR CHRIS CHRISTIE: Yes.
JIMMY FALLON: Because you’re — I made a joke about New Jersey.
GOVENROR CHRISTIE: An evil joke.
JIMMY FALLON: It wasn’t an evil joke.
GOVENROR CHRISTIE: Awful joke.
JIMMY FALLON: It wasn’t awful.
GOVENROR CHRISTIE: Awful, evil joke.
JIMMY FALLON: It was about — well, here it is.
GOVENROR CHRISTIE: Yeah.
JIMMY FALLON: New Jersey Governor Chris Christie has canceled a train tunnel between New York and New Jersey. As a result, New Yorkers will have to get to New Jersey the same as always, by accident.
[ Laughter and Cheers ]
JIMMY FALLON: It’s a funny joke. Everyone’s laughing. [ Laughter ] Anyway, thank you for coming. [ Laughter ] Thank you. But look, I’m sorry. I apologize. [ Laughter ] I love New Jersey. I’m sorry.
GOVENROR CHRISTIE: You think it’s funny, Jimmy? [ Laughter ]
JIMMY FALLON: No. I’m sorry. I don’t think it’s funny.
GOVENROR CHRISTIE: Do you know what we do to people like that in Jersey, Jimmy? [ laughter ]
JIMMY FALLON: You know what, I will not make that joke again.
GOVENROR CHRISTIE: Thank you.
JIMMY FALLON: I apologize.
GOVENROR CHRISTIE: I’ll be watching.
JIMMY FALLON: Thank you. I did like your tweets though. They were very funny and very cool.
GOVENROR CHRISTIE: Thank you.
JIMMY FALLON: I have a question. Your parents name — you have a baby boy…
GOVENROR CHRISTIE: Right.
JIMMY FALLON: And they go, I’m going to name it — last name is Christie.
GOVENROR CHRISTIE: Right.
JIMMY FALLON: For a first name, we’ve got to call him Chris.
GOVENROR CHRISTIE: Right.
JIMMY FALLON: That’s cruel.
GOVENROR CHRISTIE: Well, yeah, parents have a sense of humor.
JIMMY FALLON: Chris Christie.
GOVENROR CHRISTIE: Well, there is a story about it.
JIMMY FALLON: What is it?
GOVENROR CHRISTIE: Well. My grandfather’s name was James Christopher. My uncle’s name was James Christopher, and my aunt and mother were pregnant at the same time. I got born first, so my father wanted to name me after my grandfather. He went to the hospital with my uncle and said, “I’m gonna name him after dad.” And my uncle said, “no you’re not. I’m James Christopher Jr. My son is going to be James Christopher III.” So for four days, my parents couldn’t agree on a name. And so finally, we were getting ready to leave the hospital, they’re like, “you got to name him.” So they said, “what about the opposite, Christopher James?” And they never thought about –
JIMMY FALLON: That it’s Chris Christie.
GOVENROR CHRISTIE: Right. So I got home, my grandmother picked me up and said, “look at little Chris Christie.” And my mother said she was ready to pass out. [ laughter ]
JIMMY FALLON: That was it right there.
GOVENROR CHRISTIE: And by the way, my uncle, two daughters.
JIMMY FALLON: Oh, my gosh. Are they named James? you never know.
GOVENROR CHRISTIE: Both of them, actually.
JIMMY FALLON: Completely. I think you’re a very — you’re on the twitter, you’re on the YouTube, the Facebook. I think it’s cool that you’re that connected. Do you like doing it?
GOVENROR CHRISTIE: Yeah.
JIMMY FALLON: You do?
GOVENROR CHRISTIE: I do.
JIMMY FALLON: When did you start?
GOVENROR CHRISTIE: Well, when I started campaigning.
JIMMY FALLON: yeah.
GOVENROR CHRISTIE: You know, they — because I was a prosecutor before. So probably being on Facebook wouldn’t be the greatest thing in the world.
[ Laughter ]
GOVENROR CHRISTIE: But so, when I started campaigning, you know, my folks said to me you should really try this. And now they actually let me have, you know, twitter on my iphone.
JIMMY FALLON: yeah.
GOVENROR CHRISTIE: And I do it myself. And I look at things. I tweet back and forth, and it’s fun.
JIMMY FALLON: I mean yeah. You get into some heated debates sometimes.
GOVENROR CHRISTIE: Yes, I do.
JIMMY FALLON: Over twitter and everything.
GOVENROR CHRISTIE: Yeah, I’m not messing around.
JIMMY FALLON: I like that. I think it’s good that you do that.
GOVENROR CHRISTIE: Yeah.
JIMMY FALLON: That’s pretty cool. The big rumor that everyone’s been talking about is that you might run for President. [ Cheers and Applause ] I mean –
GOVENROR CHRISTIE: no chance.
JIMMY FALLON: No chance.
GOVENROR CHRISTIE: no chance.
JIMMY FALLON: At all?
GOVENROR CHRISTIE: No. why would –
JIMMY FALLON: You can always change your mind.
GOVENROR CHRISTIE: I guess I could. [ Applause ] people happy about that. Hopefully they’re from new jersey. [ laughter ] Here’s the thing. Why would I want a less powerful job than the one I have now? Being the governor of New Jersey is you know –
JIMMY FALLON: A pretty powerful guy.
GOVENROR CHRISTIE: It’s it, it’s great.
JIMMY FALLON: Well, you a came in at a good time. You’ve done a lot of good stuff, I think.
GOVENROR CHRISTIE: We’re trying. We inherited a mess, and we’re trying to fix it. But I’m having fun while I’m doing it.
JIMMY FALLON: Like you didn’t like the tunnel thing there because it was too expensive.
GOVENROR CHRISTIE: It was too expensive, and New Jersey was going to pay for 70% of the cost of the thing. Costs were overrun $2 billion to $5 billion. New York was paying nothing for it.
JIMMY FALLON: Yeah. And you know it always goes over budget. You have a guy come fix your house. It’s like, “oh, it’ll cost about to $2,000.” Cut to $10,000 later.
GOVENROR CHRISTIE: That’s right. So when you’re talking billions, Jimmy, it’s a lot. And you know New York was paying nothing. And there’s nothing New Jersey hates more than getting screwed by New York. [ Laughter and Applause ] there’s nothing.
JIMMY FALLON: I guess so.
GOVENROR CHRISTIE: So I was on pretty safe grounds. And that’s why, when you made the joke from New York about new jersey, it made me tweet.
JIMMY FALLON: yeah. Yeah. I was expecting a horse’s head to be –
GOVENROR CHRISTIE: Be careful.
JIMMY FALLON: Yeah exactly. But all right. So President out.
GOVENROR CHRISTIE: Out.
JIMMY FALLON: Vice President?
GOVENROR CHRISTIE: Out.
JIMMY FALLON: Come on.
GOVENROR CHRISTIE: Can you see me as anybody’s Vice President?
JIMMY FALLON: You and Sarah Palin.
GOVENROR CHRISTIE: Who would be that poor –
JIMMY FALLON: You and Sarah Palin. This is it. What do you think of Sarah Palin — do you think Sarah Palin could do it?
GOVENROR CHRISTIE: Be Vice President?
JIMMY FALLON: Yeah. Be President?
GOVENROR CHRISTIE: Well, you know. Who knows, Jimmy.
JIMMY FALLON: Yeah.
GOVENROR CHRISTIE: It’s an amazing world.
JIMMY FALLON: Crazier things have happened, I guess.
GOVENROR CHRISTIE: I don’t know. But it’s an amazing world.
JIMMY FALLON: Okay. [ Laughter and Applause ] okay. All right. I’ll take that it’s an amazing world. Well, I can’t — you can’t be more popular right now. Everyone just loves you. And I appreciate you coming all the way over to our show and coming on with us. You saw we did “pros and cons” earlier?
GOVENROR CHRISTIE: yeah.
JIMMY FALLON: I was wondering if you would like to do maybe the “pros and cons” of being governor of New Jersey.
GOVENROR CHRISTIE: I’d love to do that.
JIMMY FALLON: Will you help us out?
GOVENROR CHRISTIE: I will.
JIMMY FALLON: All right, here we go. You’ll go first. Here we go. Pro — you get to appear on cool TV shows like “Late Night with Jimmy Fallon.” Con –
GOVENROR CHRISTIE: “The Real Housewives” won’t return my calls. [ Laughter ]
JIMMY FALLON: Yeah, that’s true. They won’t return mine either. [ laughter ] Pro — you’ve helped clean up New Jersey’s water supply. Con –
GOVENROR CHRISTIE: Except that “Jersey Shore” hot tub. I ain’t going near that thing. [ Laughter and Applause ]
JIMMY FALLON: Yeah, that’s a smart move. That’s a filthy cesspool. You have to hose that thing out.
GOVENROR CHRISTIE: By the way, all those people, from New York.
JIMMY FALLON: Oh come on.
GOVENROR CHRISTIE: They are. They’re all from Staten Island, Poughkeepsie.
JIMMY FALLON: Come on. [ Laughter ] Not Sammi Sweetheart. Alright, how about Sammi Sweetheart?
GOVENROR CHRISTIE: Please. Well, one. okay. [ Laughter ]
JIMMY FALLON: I know my “Jersey Shore.”
GOVENROR CHRISTIE: Not Snookie or “The Situation” though.
JIMMY FALLON: No. But they’re getting a statue built –
GOVENROR CHRISTIE: And Jwoww.
JIMMY FALLON: — for them in times square. [ laughter ] finally, pro — you’re the boss of New Jersey. Con –
GOVENROR CHRISTIE: Oh, who am I kidding? Bruce is the real boss of New Jersey. [ Cheers and Applause ]
JIMMY FALLON: There you are. That’s “the pros and cons.” Governor Chris Christie, thank you so much for being here.
GOVENROR CHRISTIE: Thank You.