Posted on 02/01/2017 11:14:36 AM PST by jeannineinsd
Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) insisted on Wednesday that Neil Gorsuch, Trump's Supreme Court pick, will need 60 votes to clear the upper chamber.
"We Democrats will insist on a rigorous but fair process. There will be 60 votes for confirmation," he said from the Senate floor. "There will be 60 votes for confirmation."
Trump's nomination of the well-respected conservative jurist is kicking off a high-stakes battle in the Senate. Five progressive lawmakers, including Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), have already come out in opposition to Trump's nominee.
Schumer said requiring 60 votes for confirmation of Gorsuch is "the right thing to do."
Though Merkley has said he will filibuster Trump's pick, Schumer is publicly staying on the fence and hasn't explicitly backed a filibuster.
But Schumer is defending his party's push for Gorsuch to get 60 votes, noting that previous Supreme Court nominees have been able to win bipartisan support.
"It was a bar met by each of President Obama's nominations," he said. "In my mind 60 votes is the appropriate way to go whether there is a Democratic president or a Republican president, a Democratic Senate or a Republican Senate."
The back-and-forth over Trump's nominee comes as the president endorsed going "nuclear" and lowering the requirement to a simple majority if Democrats block his nominee.
Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) has repeatedly indicated that he does not want to take what would be a historic step and change Senate rules.
Schumer appeared to push against Trump on Wednesday, arguing that if Gorsuch can't get 60 votes, then the "problem" is with the president's pick.
(Excerpt) Read more at thehill.com ...
After two years Schumer will be reduced to a hollow, shattered figure who will pathetically whine to anyone who will listen that although he lost every major battle, he did all he could. Then the tears will be real.
And it’s utterly pointless. They’ll accomplish nothing. We’ll get our Justice, the composition of the court won’t change and everyone will hate the Dems more than they already do when it comes time for President Trump to appoint a replacement for Ginsberg or another idiot liberal Justice.
Nevada Sen. Harry Reid, the upper-chamber’s outgoing Democratic leader, is unmoved by Republican posturing surrounding judicial nominees, vowing Senate Democrats will change the body’s rules to require only 51 votes for confirmation.
In 2013 Dems used the “nuclear option” under Harry Reid to approve 3 of Obama’s Justices to the DC Circuit Court of Appeals.
As Obama likes to say...elections have consequences.
Ginsburg.. The gall of that woman. She was SO SURE Hillary was going to win. LOL
Does that include the VP?
First, there is only one odd vote to filibuster a Supreme Court nominee. A 60 vote threshold has never held been a requirement.
Second, there are quite a few endangered Democrats. It is possible we will pick up 8 from them to get to 60 votes.
Third, if we can’t get to 60, but there is a majority favoring the nominee, President Trump state that if the nominee isn’t given a straight up or down vote, he will make a recess appointment.
The recess appointment would undermine the design of the judiciary. The founders desired that justices be removed from politics. Appointing them by recess appointments would keep them dangling. Hopefully, the dimwits in the Senate would realize the gravity of the situation, and allow an up-or down, simple majority vote.
But, if they don’t, and Trump recess-appoints his nominee, the Supreme Court could then rule that the nominee met the Constitutional requirement for confirmation (which is a simple majority vote), and that the Senate cannot, by its rules, undermine the framework of our government.
But Schumer is defending his party's push for Gorsuch to get 60 votes, noting that previous Supreme Court nominees have been able to win bipartisan support.
"It was a bar met by each of President Obama's nominations," he said.
IOW, Republicans should mind their manners and continue supporting our nominees while we're free to deny them theirs. It was expected that Republicans approve the socialists and degenerates Obama put up but to have a constitutionalist presented by Trump is intolerable and outside the main stream so we feel justified in rejecting him.
Nuke em Danno!
Schumer can insist all he wants. He and Harry Reid set the precedent to steamroller the minority party, time to use it against them and teach them why it’s a bad idea.
Collins forcing the nuke option. What’d she get for that?
Chuckie blinked. He will the next time also.
The other Dem senators are going to be all over him. They’d be wasting their time...and everyone knows he’s going to be confirmed.
It is all for show. They will bare their fangs for real for the next appointment. It will be insanity unleashed. Never before seen. Then it will get even worse for the third nomination.
agreed , there are still some Dems in vulnerable seats in two years who can be persuaded to vote yes.
Has an explanation surfaced for Judge Gorsuch’s unanimous approval by the Senate to his current judgeship?
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