Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell on Thursday delivered a final warning to Democrats who planned to block Supreme Court nominee Neil Gorsuch in an 11 a.m. vote, and said if that happens, they’d be responsible for triggering a rule change in the Senate known as the “nuclear option.”
“If you truly cannot support the nomination of this uniquely qualified nominee, then at least allow a bipartisan majority of the Senate that supports Gorsuch to take an up or down vote,” McConnell, R-Ky., said on the Senate floor. “You already deployed the nuclear option in 2013. Don’t trigger it again in 2017.”
But Democrats are expected to prevent the Senate from gathering the 60 votes needed today to end debate on Gorsuch and move toward a confirmation vote. Once that happens, McConnell is expected to seek a change in the threshold to move forward with the Gorsuch confirmation that would lower the necessary votes from 60 to 51.
Democrats oppose Gorsuch because he is ultra-conservative and favors corporate interests over people. Democrats also argue Republicans should withdraw Gorsuch to even the score following McConnell’s refusal last year to take up Obama’s Supreme Court nominee, Merrick Garland.
“That name is the reason we are in this spot today,” Minority Whip Dick Durbin, D-Ill. “They kept that position vacant so it could be fulfilled by a Republican president. That is why we are here today.”
Republicans called the Democrats’ opposition an unprecedented partisan filibuster.
“We will not allow their latest unprecedented act on a judicial nomination to take hold,” McConnell said.
Democrats have not signaled a change in plans to oppose Gorsuch. Even though a handful of their caucus will support him, it won’t be enough to reach the needed 60-vote threshold to avert the nuclear option.
“All indications are is that they are committed to their course,” said Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa. “That’s unfortunate. It truly is.”
