Texas Gov. Rick Perry (R) recently broke bread with The New York Times Magazine’s Mark Liebovitch at a Jewish deli in Beverly Hills.

“I’m more Jewish than you think I am,” he told Leibovitch over a corned-beef Reuben. “I read the part of the Bible that said the Jews are God’s chosen people.”

Liebovitch caught up with Perry during the governor’s recent trip to California for a story published Tuesday, which delves into the governor’s presidential aspirations and his tendency to gaffe that could derail them. Just last week, Perry raised eyebrows when he compared being gay to being an alcoholic at an event in San Francisco.

Of that other infamous “Oops” moment from the 2012 presidential campaign trail, when he failed to name a third government agency he’d abolish, Perry told Liebovitch “Ron Paul walked up and said: ‘I’ve done that before. But I’ve never done it in front of four million people.'”

If he decides to forego a second presidential bid and all the scrutiny that comes with it, Perry told Liebovitch he just might move to California when his third and final term as governor ends in January. Until then he’s meeting with policy experts and attending economic forums, all in the name of becoming a “better person” — perhaps the type of person that voters could get behind in 2016.

Read the whole thing here.