the rules put in place over two centuries to be confirmed by a majority of senators

. >> mr. president tranten is consent to read this does to lift the quorum for. >> lemay think represent colleague from nebraska for her indulgence of want to express our concern here in the mattis dates for our friends in the petersburg russia in the wake of the explosion on the subway system this morning so timothy adversarial today is a time to remember we wish no ill to the people of the nation law of prayers are with the families of the russians killed this morningro we wish a swift recovery to the injured and of the perpetrators are brought to justice. t now i rise of the nomination

of judge gorsuch to the supreme court that was just a dance by the judiciary committee. this afternoon it is clear that the judge has not had the 60 votes necessary to end debate on the nomination so now the focus said shifting away from the issue if he can get 60 votes on the cloture motion will the majority leader break the rules to get the judge on the bench? the majority leader has said several times he will be confirmed by the end of this week one way or another but what he really means is that if judge gorsuch does not earn 60 votes that is now the likely outcome thatxe republicans must exerciseuc the nuclear option to pass

on a simple majority vote. i think the majority leader says if he says eddie nighttimes they will think nobody has a choice setting up a false choice support judge courses jersey will have no rice but to break the rules may be for the majority leader the nuclear option is the only option m but there are other alternatives. to make up his mind independent of what democrats to issue after issue but he says he has no choice because the right wing of the republican partysn'b like the heritage foundation will go after him if he doesn't but he does have a choice to have the right and courageous thing.t. instead republicans play the game of they started it they

say the democrats started the process by changing the rules and failed to mention the history that led up to the change and the reason they change the rule was because they had ramped up the use of the filibuster years with the 79 nominees of president obama as presidency and to put that into perspective prior to president obama there were 68 filibusters from george washington to george bush admino exclusively a under the first four years of his administration who republicans filibustered 79 times. a seventy-nine nomineesause i deliberately kept open the d.c. court of appeals

because it had such influence of decisions made by the government and to limit what government can do. the group of senators have several of the most judges conservative jurist in an the land to become judges but republican colleagues insisted on a holding three seats sound familiar? and at the time to lead as

vote on the judges to the d.c. circuit. and the pressure on our side to change the rules after all the filibuster so let's avoid that. republicans refused the overtures. and to trace that all the way back to the hamilton rule but they would block judge garland using the most unprecedented maneuvers to say that neither party has gotten so to go back and forth and blame each other

so to be caused by justice scalia's death melos carlin because the of president and block and republicans will lose on judge gorsuch because we're doing something that we think is reasonable to earn 60 votes. they're not equivalent but in either case we both lost for a week back to square one and republicans have total freedom of choice in this situation no one is forcing them to break the rules.e. as the first and only option . the answer is not to change the rules but to change the nominees.

when the supreme court experts failed the confirmation the answer is not to change the rule but the nominee the majorityee leader that i shin seriously consider a different optionld st with the senate republicans and democrats to sit down to a gatherer to come up with the mainstream nominee to meet with them anywhere anywhere, anytime to discuss the consensus. to be the mainstream nominee but we disagree. with any nominee by the heritage foundation and the federal society that this

zero gatekeeper and each is well-known to be a special interest group as it shows that. by to did the analysis to show that judge gorsuch would be very, very conservative or right-wing justice on of bench. second only to justice thomas and more conservative than the late justice scalia and "the washington post" actually said to be the most conservative justice of the bench even more than the conservative justice thomas in fact, to never let

special interest groups be the gatekeeper. we have never said to any special interest groups give us a list or choose from a list and in the past presidents have done just what they're suggesting for selecting the supreme court justice. president bill clinton saw the republican judiciary chairman orrin hatch beat nominating justice ginsberg empire then to take the vice of republican senators whenco he picked garland a consensus mainstream nominee. try president trump on either hand only sophy advice and consent of special interest groups when making supreme court ex so

to outsource entireo selection process. they will lead admit them themselves. the load and behold to produce a nominee with 60 votes and justice beyer 87. so mr. president we're offering president trump and our friends on the other side a way for word from the battue break the senate confirmation process to begin the constitutional principle to get a justice on the bench to simply

consult with members of both parties to try to come up with a consensus nominee to get approved with a threshold and the answer again is not change the rules but to change the nominee. and not to oppose every republican nominee that he is so far out of the mainstream he cannot earn votes to pass the senate. even justices roberts and justice alito were very conservative earned a bunch of democratic votes and each got more than 60. free semester president they canay

choose to go nuclear boris the damage democrats to find a way forward to preserve the grand tradition. the majority leader himself has said the one thing is to protect the integrity of this institution i did ricans stipulate so mitch mcconnell in the senate sostandr owe i believe that meets the majority of the leader standard of the 60 votes. court and with those controversial matters republican friends

consider the option to workge together to find a solution we can both except mac like a novel concept but that option is always on the table. important >> this week is important for the american people. the supreme court and for the senate. the with the supreme court nominee and then to break with recent precedent and what is widely respected the supreme court nominee. to simply agree to the uproar down voter nomination