New Jersey Governor Chris Christie on
Tuesday promised a swift veto on a proposed gay marriage bill.
On Monday, the New Jersey Senate
approved the bill which seeks to make New Jersey the eighth state to
legalize gay marriage. The measure received greater support than
expected, but fell three votes short of the 27 needed to override
Christie's promised veto. The Assembly will vote on the bill
Thursday.
Christie described the Senate's vote as
“a good bunch of theater” during a press conference.
“Yesterday was a good bunch of
theater, but that's all it was. It was theater,” the Republican governor said.
Christie added that it would be
“awfully embarrassing” if the bill failed to clear the Assembly
after Democrats made it a priority.
“I'm assuming they will have the
votes to pass it” in the Assembly, he said.
Christie, who supports the state's
civil unions law, added that his veto would put an end to the issue.
“They're gonna be nowhere near the
votes to override in either chamber. And so hopefully we can then
move on from this issue. If they pass it on Thursday and send it to
my desk, believe me I will take very swift action on the bill and
then we can move on to the things the people of New Jersey say are
most important to them. Which is creating jobs, lowering taxes and
continuing the New Jersey comeback. And that's what we should be
focused on. Not the last month that we spent, what really is an act
of theater on their part because they know it's not going to happen,”
he said. (The video is embedded in the right panel of this page.
Visit
our video library for more videos.)