Trump Says “It is an exciting time” For United States

The current Senate rules require at least 60 senators to vote in favor of ending a filibuster to end debate and proceed to a vote, which made Claire McCaskill’s vote a critical one given the current makeup of the Senate.

Republicans control the Senate 52-48, meaning they need to win over eight Democrats to block a filibuster.

The filibuster will likely lead Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell to trigger the so-called nuclear option and end the use of the filibuster on Supreme Court nominees. Many consider Mr. Gorsuch qualified, but the memory of Republicans’ refusal to consider Merrick Garland’s nomination still smarts, pushing Democrats to say they intend to resort to a procedural tactic that Republicans threaten will force them to re-write the legislative playbook.

All eyes over the next week will be on this group. It is especially hard to buy into that narrative considering that Senator Bernie Sanders was a big victor in Heitkamp’s state, indicating that there is an untapped bubble of progressivism in the state that the DNC is feeding a steady diet of nothing but purple Democrats.

Manchin and Heitkamp are seen as moderate Democrats and represent states that Trump won overwhelmingly in the presidential election. Most are up for re-election, but a majority of that group is considered fairly safe in their respective states.

“By the way, Gorsuch was one of the better ones”, McCaskill reportedly said.

In a brutal post published Friday on Medium, Democratic Sen. Harry Reid of Nevada and upset about the blockage of President Barack Obama’s nominees to a powerful appellate court. The Republicans may employ this “nuclear option” if it became necessary because the last thing they want is to award the Democrats the political victory of defeating Gorsuch, at the expense of depriving their own constituents of a conservative justice who has a stellar academic record and professes to admire the revered Antonin Scalia.

“It would hurt the country when you’ve got this far right, kind of mob rule in the House”, said Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California, the Judiciary Committee’s senior Democrat, told Gorsuch.

But there are some seeking to avoid such a move, including Chris Coons of Delaware. They hope mounting a filibuster can give them the moral high ground if and when Republicans change Senate rules.

Sen. Michael Bennet (Colorado) – Bennet has been quiet this week about how where he’ll fall on the filibuster.

McCaskill laid out the peril for Democrats on the Gorsuch nomination in a private Missouri fund raiser whose audio was leaked by Missouri Republicans earlier this week.

Sen. Roy Blunt, R-Mo., supports the nomination.

Sen. Dianne Feinstein (California) – Feinstein is the top Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee and another high ranking Democrat in the Senate, having served since 1992. Schumer was influential in getting McCaskill to run in 2006 and helped her raise money.

Even if all of those backed the judge and opposed a filibuster, they’d still need support from two others.