Senator Schumer on Nuclear Option After Panel Reports Gorsuch Nomination

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer delivers a statement on the floor an hour after the Judiciary Committee favorably reported the nomination of Judge Neil Gorsuch to the Supreme Court for consideration by the full Senate. Schumer says Republicans play a game of you started it with the 2013 invocation of the so-called nuclear option, a result of filibusters of historic proportions during the Obama presidency, defends his stance during that time of keeping 60 votes in place for Supreme Court nominations, that Republicans blocked Merrick Garland, that neither party has gotten their choice on the Court, both lost. Schumer says the Majority Leader, President Trump and Senate Democrats should sit down to come up with a mainstream nominee, that his party cannot support a candidate whose sole vetting were by conservative groups dedicated to moving the bench to the right.