Amid pressure from President Trump to confirm his nominee at all costs, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell on Sunday said he believes Judge Neil Gorsuch ultimately will get the 60 votes needed to become the next Supreme Court justice.
The Kentucky Republican wouldn’t rule out the “nuclear option” — eliminating the traditional 60-vote threshold to confirm Supreme Court justices and instead requiring a simple majority vote, as Democrats have done for confirmations to lower federal courts — but believes such a drastic move won’t be necessary.
“I’m confident we will get the 60 votes,” Mr. McConnell said during an appearance on CNN’s “State of the Union” program. “I’m very confident he will be confirmed. If we have to get 60 votes, I’m confident we will.”
The majority leader said it is up to Democrats to determine whether Judge Gorsuch is confirmed through normal procedure or through the nuclear option.
Republicans have a 52-seat majority, so at least eight Democrats would have to vote in favor of Judge Gorsuch, an accomplished legal scholar who sits on the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
Mr. Trump last week announced Judge Gorsuch as his choice to fill the seat of the late Justice Antonin Scalia, and he urged Mr. McConnell to push through the nomination quickly and by whatever means necessary.
“If we end up with that gridlock, I would say, ’If you can, Mitch, go nuclear,’” Mr. Trump told reporters Wednesday, hours after announcing his nomination of Judge Gorsuch during a prime-time TV event.
The debate around Judge Gorsuch is especially heated given the events of the past year. Republicans blocked Judge Merrick Garland, President Obama’s pick to fill the high court vacancy, for nearly a full year. They said such a high-stakes appointment shouldn’t be made against the backdrop of presidential election politics.
Democrats remain stung by that obstruction, and they are voicing their opposition to the very notion that Mr. McConnell would alter Senate procedure solely to appease Mr. Trump.
“It should require 60 votes and a very serious debate,” Sen. Bernard Sanders, Vermont independent and a progressive leader in the Senate, told CNN on Sunday.
Other Democrats said they are open to voting in favor of Judge Gorsuch, but they also cautioned Mr. McConnell to allow the process to play out in its own time and not rush ahead with the nuclear option at the urging of the White House.
“When Democrats were in charge, we were concerned [with], ’What if Republicans are in charge? Let’s keep that 60-vote threshold in place,’” said Sen. Amy Klobuchar, Minnesota Democrat.
Asked whether she would support Judge Gorsuch’s nomination, she said it was too soon to decide, echoing the comments Sunday of other key Senate Democrats who say they are keeping an open mind but are clearly skeptical.
“I think everything depends on how he answers the questions,” Ms. Klobuchar said. “When we look at his record — we literally just got this nomination.”
The debate over Judge Gorsuch comes amid what some Democrats believe are broader issues between Mr. Trump and the judicial branch, and the need for strong judges to potentially rein in the Trump administration.
They point to Mr. Trump’s tweet over the weekend in which he referred to federal Judge James Robart as a “so-called judge.” Judge Robart had halted the administration’s temporary travel ban on seven Muslim-majority nations, and Democrats say Mr. Trump’s response highlights how the executive branch will push back against judges at an unprecedented level.
Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, suggested that the episode colors anything to do with Mr. Trump and the judiciary.
“The president is not a dictator,” she said during on an interview on “Fox News Sunday.”
Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer, New York Democrat, last week made a similar claim, saying Judge Gorsuch deserves extra scrutiny because the Supreme Court could play an especially active role over the next four years.
The administration rejects that argument and says Democrats are simply trying to use what little political power they have left to obstruct the Trump White House, its Cabinet nominees and its judicial selections.
“I just think it shows how Sen. Schumer is going to reach to anything to try and continue to obstruct the nomination of Judge Gorsuch to the Supreme Court. But that’s nothing new. I mean, I’ve got to be honest with you, it’s really been surprising to me since the advent of this administration to see the obstruction by Sen. Schumer and Senate Democrats of one Cabinet nominee after another,” Vice President Mike Pence told “Fox News Sunday.”
• Ben Wolfgang can be reached at bwolfgang@washingtontimes.com.
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