'This Week' Transcript: 2013 Game Changers

Dec. 29, 2013— -- Below is a rush transcript for "This Week" on December 29, 2013.

GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS, HOST: Good morning, and welcome to a special edition of This Week.

Game changers, as the year draws to a close, those who made their mark in 2013.

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Habemus papam.

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STEPHANOPOULOS: Fresh insights on a new pope, the Tea Party star shaking up Washington, the hacker who revealed America's secrets, raised fears of Big Brother.

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MALALA YOUSAFZAI, WOMEN'S RIGHTS ACTIVIST: They thought that the bullet will silence us, but they failed.

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STEPHANOPOULOS: And the young girl who inspired us all by defying fear. New exclusive interviews, insights and analysis, the game changers of 2013. They changed the world. And they're right here this Sunday morning.

ANNOUNCER: From ABC News, This Week with George Stephanopoulos starts now.

STEPHANOPOULOS: Hello again. I hope you're enjoying this holiday week, one we're marking with a special look back at the people who broke through and made a big difference in 2013. Our "This Week" game changers.

We've got some surprising revelations and brand-new interviews, starting with Texas Senator Ted Cruz. It is hard to remember a freshman senator stealing the spotlight so quickly and with such force. He stopped the government in its tracks for 16 days. To cheers from Tea Party activists, jeers from Democrats and some establishment Republicans too. But that's not slowing Cruz a bit. He's setting his sights on higher office.

ABC's chief White House correspondent Jonathan Karl has his story.

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JONATHAN KARL, ABC NEWS CORRESPONDENT: When it comes to politics, you could say this has been the year of Ted Cruz.

SEN. TED CRUZ, (R) TEXAS: It's government that needs more help.

KARL: Aside from the president, no one attracted more attention or more controversy. Cruz went from obscurity to leading presidential candidate in a political nanosecond, the man at the center of the government shutdown ended 2013 as a runner-up to the pope as TIME's person of the year.

Most first year senators lay low. This one ended up on the couch next to Jay Leno. JAY LENO, TONIGHT SHOW HOST: I have been reading a lot about you lately. And they describe you as aggressive, arrogant and abrasive. Accurate.

CRUZ: Well, I don't know that you can believe everything you read.

What I'm trying to do is do my job. And, occasionally people don't like that.

KARL: Do you want people in Washington to like you?

CRUZ: You know, Jon, what I want to do is I want to serve 26 million Texans. I want to do my job. That's really my focus.

KARL: Do you care -- I mean, does it bother you that a lot of people around here just don't like you?

CRUZ: Nobody should be surprised if you're trying to change Washington, that the Washington establishment pushes back.

KARL: And push back they did. Just weeks after his swearing- in...

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Mr. Cruz of Texas.

KARL: ...Cruz seemed to be off to a rough start, quickly rubbing his new colleagues in the senate the wrong way.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Senator Cruz has gone over the line.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm not a sixth grader. Senator, I have been on this committee for 20 years.

KARL: Senator John McCain branded Cruz and his fellow Tea Partyers in congress wacko birds, an insult to be sure, but Cruz didn't seem to mind.