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.)