Sen. John Thune, the No. 3-ranking Republican in the U.S. Senate, said Wednesday he’d prefer to avoid triggering the “nuclear option” in order to get President Trump’s Supreme Court nominee confirmed, after Mr. Trump said earlier he’d urge Senate Republicans to do so if necessary.
“That’s not my preference,” Mr. Thune, South Dakota Republican, said on CNN. “My hope would be that we can do this with the cooperation of Democrats.”
“Eventually allow this nominee to get voted on in an up and down way, and preserve what I think is a long tradition in the Senate,” Mr. Thune said, adding that the exception was Democrats voting in 2013 to do away with the 60-vote filibuster threshold for certain executive and judicial nominees.
“But the best way to do this is under regular order, the way it’s always been done, the way it was done for President Clinton and President Obama,” he said. “I hope the Democrats will work with us to make that happen.”
Mr. Thune also pointed out that Mr. Obama tried to filibuster the nomination of Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. when the former president was a U.S. senator in 2006.
On Tuesday, Mr. Trump announced Judge Neil Gorsuch as his nominee to replace the vacancy left by the death of Justice Antonin Scalia.
On Wednesday, the president said that while the decision is up to Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, he’d urge Mr. McConnell to “go nuclear” and lower the 60-vote threshold for Judge Gorsuch’s nomination if enough Democrats try to block it.
• David Sherfinski can be reached at dsherfinski@washingtontimes.com.
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