Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer tried to build his case for Democrats to filibuster Judge Neil Gorsuch’s nomination to the Supreme Court by reminding Republicans that only three current GOP senators voted for either of President Obama’s high court picks.
The New York Democrat accused Republicans of hypocritical “hand-wringing” after Republican leaders blocked consideration of Judge Merrick Garland, Obama’s choice to fill the court vacancy, for nearly a year.
“For all the hand-wringing by my friends on the other side of the aisle that they cannot imagine Democrats voting against Judge Gorsuch, I would like to remind them that only three — three — of the current senators on the Republican side voted for either of President Obama’s confirmed nominees,” Schumer said Tuesday on the Senate floor, referring to Justices Elena Kagan and Sonia Sotomayor.
Democrats, he said, have participated in a “fair, transparent, and thorough process of advice and consent,” during Gorsuch’s Judiciary Committee confirmation hearings and have decided “not to consent.”
“To participate in hearings and a thorough process — something we were denied — does not mean you have to be a rubber-stamp. After a thorough review of Judge Gorsuch’s record, many of my colleagues and I have concluded we cannot consent,” he said.
Republicans counter that none of their current members ever voted to filibuster a Democratic president’s Supreme Court nominee, and there are only three current members who voted for either of Obama’s picks because the Senate GOP has had a lot of turnover in recent years.
“So if Sen. Schumer wants apples-to-apples [comparisons], we have no members who voted to filibuster any Supreme Court nominee. Not ever, not once, not for any president’s Supreme Court nominees,” a senior Senate GOP leadership aide told the Washington Examiner.
Vice President Mike Pence and GOP leaders have said they will seat Gorsuch one way or another. The comments imply that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., would go “nuclear” and change the Senate rules to allow a simple-majority vote on high court nominees, instead of the current required 60 votes to break a filibuster. Former Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., in 2013 first went nuclear and changed Senate rules to prevent filibusters on all presidential appointment, except those to the Supreme Court.
