Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) on Tuesday evening filed cloture to end debate on Neil Gorsuch’s nomination to the Supreme Court, setting up a showdown that could result in Senate Republicans turning to the so-called “nuclear option” to ram Gorsuch’s nomination through.
McConnell filed the procedural motion to bring Gorsuch’s nomination to a final vote, which is scheduled for Thursday.
Senate Democrats on Monday secured the 41 votes necessary to filibuster Gorsuch’s nomination. McConnell made clear that he would respond to a filibuster by using the “nuclear option” to change Senate rules and push Gorsuch’s nomination through with a simple majority.
The Senate Judiciary Committee voted on Monday along party lines, 11-9, to advance Gorsuch’s nomination to the chamber floor.
Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) on Tuesday said that the deployment of the “nuclear option” was a “dark day for the United States Senate,” while pledging to support McConnell’s likely use of the rules change.
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), who on Monday said that the nuclear option spelled “the end of bipartisanship on judges,” also said that he would vote for it.
McConnell on Tuesday indicated that he had the votes necessary to invoke the rules change.
Asked if he was confident that he had the votes to use the “nuclear option,” McConnell told reporters: “Yes.”
