Neil Gorsuch will be confirmed to the Supreme Court even if Democrats do not provide the eight votes needed to break a filibuster, Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said Wednesday in an interview that seemed to hint at a possible change to Senate rules to approve President Trump’s nominee over Democratic objections.
In an interview with the Washington Examiner, McConnell said he planned to file cloture on the Gorsuch nomination, setting in motion the formal procedure that Senate rules provide for breaking a filibuster.
Cloture, or a vote to end debate, must be invoked to prevent a filibuster, but McConnell said it won’t matter for Gorsuch, who is currently serving on the U.S. Court of Appeals.
“Cloture could be invoked, it could not be invoked,” said McConnell, R-Ky. “All I can tell you is Judge Gorsuch is going to be confirmed.”
McConnell said he would “not play out how this ends,” other than to pledge that Gorsuch would end up on the high court. “There are a number of ways to get in,” he added.
But McConnell declined to say what other options he might use to confirm Gorsuch other than the so-called nuclear option, which requires changing the Senate rules to lower the number of votes required to approve a Supreme Court justice from 60 to 51.
Alternatively, Democrats, particularly those up for re-election in 2018, may yet help provide the eight votes needed to reach 60 votes.
McConnell called Gorsuch “a stunningly successful individual.” Gorsuch was nominated to fill the vacancy left by the death one year ago of Justice Antonin Scalia.
“We are going to get Judge Gorsuch confirmed,” he said. “How that happens is up to the Democrats.”
