Maryland Senator Steny Hoyer on Thursday said he thinks President Barack Obama would applaud passage of gay marriage in Maryland.

During an appearance on MSNBC, anchor Luke Russert asked Hoyer for his reaction to New Jersey Governor Chris Christie's call for Obama to publicly discuss his position on gay nuptials.

Appearing earlier on MSNBC's Morning Joe, Christie defended his recent veto of a gay marriage bill by saying he held the same position on the issue as the president.

“Let's have the President of the United States show some courage, come on this program, look into the camera, like I'm looking into the camera, and state his position. He won't because he wants to have it both ways. I'm not looking to have it both ways, I vetoed the bill. … This is the type of cowardice that we don't want,” Christie said.

“I think the president's response would be Maryland has chosen to move forward on this path and that's a proper path for them to pursue if that's what the Legislature wants to do,” Hoyer said. “I think frankly the president would applaud the Maryland Legislature for having the courage to move forward and say we're going to treat all off our citizens equally.” (The video is embedded in the right panel of this page. Visit our video library for more videos.)