Page 1463 - Threshold News Today

Burgdorf. plus, chapel hill finds redemption. >> big night. first, senate republicans are preparing to invoke the so-called nuclear option as the confirmation of president trumps supreme court nominee neil gorsuch heads toward a dramatic final vote. yesterday the senate judiciary committee approved gorsuchs nomination in an 11-9 vote. it went along party lines. that vote essentially served as a preview of what will likely be a seismic contentious vote by the full senate. at some point today mi...

♪ >> dana: it was in november 2013 that democrats in the senate led by harry reid forever changed the rules of the chamber by lowering the threshold for filibusters. mr. reid at the time dismissed questions about republicans using similar tactics. >> arent you worried that republican also get rid of the filibuster on the supreme court anyway. >> let them do it? why in the world would we care? we were prying to protect everybody. they want simple majority? fine. i mean, all these threats about ...

Nominee during an election year. >> i dont think we should be moving forward on this nominee if it was the last year of this presidents term. >> mitch mcconnell has made it pretty clear, theyre not going to vote on this until after the election. >> most republicans agree that it should be brought up after the elections to avoid the politics. >> democrats and their liberali not what we did then. >> the next nominee, whoever that is would be required to have the 60 vote threshold. who would believ...

Lets put that in perspective, from george washington to george bush, 58 filibusters, so we were responding to the overuse of a procedure that was really putting things into park and not allowing things to move forward. >> are there any other options for republicans other than changing the rules of the senate? >> not if democrats arent going to give them the votes. i think everyone should be concerned about the senate losing the 60-vote threshold, whether it comes to nominees, whether it comes to...

Possible and republicans will be left with one option. to invoke the nuclear option or the constitutional option and extend harry reids 50 vote threshold for the first time ever to a supreme court nominee. joining us now, ted cruz. senator, the real a precedent -- the real lack of precedents here -- its never happened before in over 200 years. a partisan democratic party that will not allow an up or down vote because they know they will lose. so, what do you think happens >> sean, you are exactl...

Not you can find a nominee that can find consensus. of course you can. its happened in history. it will continue to happen. but changing a threshold only puts people into different corners and it creates an environment where bipartisanship cannot exist. and you dont have to do that. no one, including mitch mcconnell, has to take the dramatic step of up ending literally hundreds of years of precedence to change the rule. >> jon: or 15 years, if you want to accept what elia said earlier. elia, mic...

Kasie hunt. thank you for that. kasies explanation tonight is germane to our discussion because the senate judiciary committee today voted to advance supreme court nominee and federal judge neil gorsuch to the senate floor where he will likely face a filibuster. i spoke earlier this will evening to democratic senator richard blumenthal of connecticut. importantly, he sits on the judiciary and armed services committees. i started off by asking him whether he agreed with a headline that was out to...

Can do as a senior member of the judiciary committee to head this off? >> i dont think that this is going to fundamentally change the way the senate operates. i may be in the minority in that feeling. the real jump would be if we go to allowing nuclear option on legislative matters. and i dont think theres any taste for going there. weve already broken the rules with respect to the lower court judges and the cabinet appointees. weve learned to our peril that you get some really rancid cabinet ap...

Block this nomination, which is going to happen in the end, by forcing the so-called nuclear option? shouldnt democrats save this for a possible next nomination, which could affect the balance of the court? gorsuchs nomination doesnt change what was the balance of the court. >> i really think that every single supreme court justice is critical to this country. and we need to make sure that there is not an idealogical supreme court justice, which is why the 60 vote threshold has been so important...

For merrick garland. i think the fight around garland comes up because were sort of le ludicrous that someone would expect their nominee to go through without any problems. the senate has a responsibility to the american people to make sure theyre selecting somebody who answers their questions. something that this nominee did not do. and i think were going to continue to see resistance. republicans are going to have to make sure that they want to move in the direction that theyre talking about m...