Asked by a student about his stance on raising the minimum wage nationwide, Christie reminded the audience that he vetoed a minimum wage increase bill last year because it raised the rate “too much, too soon.” …

“I think that’s a really bad idea. I think in the long run it will end up costing jobs,” Christie said, but added “that’s the rule of the law of the state right now. In fact it’s constitutional. The legislature can’t change it anymore,” he continued. “Crazy way to do business, let me tell ya.” …

“It’s one of those things that sounds really good,” he said. “No one’s against it, but we got to deal with the realistic nature of our economy that’s still only growing between 2 and 3 percent, so it’s not like we have some robust, exploding economy that’s going to be able to support all of this.”