Christie Tells Barbara Walters He Isn\'t Too Heavy to Be President

Andrew Burton/Getty Images Gov. Chris Christie

Gov. Chris Christie said it was “ridiculous” for people to question whether he was too heavy to be president of the United States during a television interview scheduled to be broadcast on Wednesday night.

The governor told Barbara Walters for her annual “10 Most Fascinating People” special on ABC that he was “more than a little” overweight.

But when Ms. Walters said some people say he is too overweight to be president, Mr. Christie, a Republican who is often mentioned as a potentially formidable candidate in 2016, responded: “That's ridiculous. I don't know what the basis for that is.”

Ms. Walters said that people were concerned about his health and that people who were overweight were more prone to health problems like heart disease and diabetes.

But the governor noted his work after Hurricane Sandy struck New Jersey, when he appeared all over the state in his now familiar fleece jacket (he wore one to mock himself on “Saturday Night Live”) and won a huge bump in his public approval rating, even among Democrats.

“I think people watched me for the last number of weeks and Hurricane Sandy doing 18-hour days and getting right back up the next day and still being just as effective in the job,” he told Ms. Walters. “So I don't really think that would be a problem.”

Prominent Republican donors had encouraged Mr. Christie to run for president this year, and floated his name as a potential vice-presidential candidate. He recently announced that he would run for re-election next year. (The big question in New Jersey politics is w hether Cory A. Booker, the mayor of Newark, will be his Democratic challenger.)

The governor's advisers have maintained that his weight does not bother his constituents. If anything, they say, some people appear to identify more with someone who struggles with his weight.

That has not stopped interviewers from asking about it. Earlier this year, he told Oprah Winfrey that he had “developed a shell” about weight jokes. And he told Piers Morgan that he had started working with a trainer.

Ms. Walters started the discussion by observing that Mr. Christie is a “little overweight.” He responded, “More than a little.”
When she asked why, he replied, “If I could figure that out, I'd fix it.”