Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer on Tuesday defended the 60-vote requirement to advance President Trump’s pending Supreme Court nominee, and said getting to 60 is a way for Trump to demonstrate that his nominee is “mainstream” and able to win bipartisan support.
The New York Democrat said Senate Democrats don’t regret changing Senate rules in 2013 to allow for all presidential nominations to pass on a simple majority vote except the high court, which still requires 60 votes to overcome a filibuster.
“We have no intention of getting rid of the 60-vote hurdle,” Schumer told reporters. “We didn’t then. We don’t now.”
“We explicitly put forward that 60 should stay on the Supreme Court, and the reason for that is that this is such an important position, it ought to be bipartisan and mainstream as far as the nominees,” he said.
Schumer made those comments just hours before Trump was expected to name his nominee, and days after Republicans have hinted that they might have to change Senate rules to advance that pick with just a simple majority in the Senate, not a 60-vote supermajority.
Democrats have no power to change the Senate rules when it comes to how many votes a high court pick will need to win confirmation. That decision will be made by the Senate majority, and will be up to Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., if Democrats force a decision on a new rules change by successfully filibustering Trump’s pick.
When then-Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., blew up the Senate rules for most presidential nominees they were deliberate about keeping a 60-vote threshold for the Supreme Court, Schumer said.
Democrats kept that higher vote hurdle, he said, because they decided “that this is such an important position, it ought to be bipartisan and mainstream in terms of the nominees.”
Schumer held off on reacting to specific names under consideration, saying he would have more to say after Trump’s announces his high court choice this evening.
