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Speaker 1: It's been fourteen months since Justice Anton and Scalia died

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Speaker 1: and left the Supreme Court with only eight justices. Since

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Speaker 1: then President Barack Obama nominated Merrik Garland for the seat,

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Speaker 1: the Republicans refused to hold hearings or a vote on Garland.

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Speaker 1: Donald Trump was elected. President Trump nominated Neil Gorcich. The

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Speaker 1: Democrats in the Senate mounted a filibuster to prevent Garland's confirmation,

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Speaker 1: and Republicans voted to change the Senate rules to eliminate

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Speaker 1: the filibuster for Supreme Court nominations. And now the fight

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Speaker 1: is over, as the Senate today confirmed Gorsage as a

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Speaker 1: Justice of the Supreme Court. We're gonna talk about the

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Speaker 1: Gorcage confirmation with Bloomberg Congressional reporter Laura Litvan Laura. It's

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Speaker 1: it will find out over the next twenty or thirty,

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Speaker 1: maybe forty years, whether Neil Gorsage is a historic justice

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Speaker 1: on the Court, what his significance is as a justice.

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Speaker 1: But this certainly was a historically significant confirmation process with

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Speaker 1: the elimination of the filibuster. Are the Republicans, you know,

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Speaker 1: the Republicans got a big victory putting him on the court.

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Speaker 1: Are they happy about having gotten rid of the filibuster

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Speaker 1: for Supreme Court nominations as well. Um, they were willing

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Speaker 1: to do this just seventy days into this new administration,

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Speaker 1: which was um, it's notable, but I don't think they

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Speaker 1: they in their view, felt they wanted to do it.

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Speaker 1: What they've said is that they felt that the Democrats

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Speaker 1: would have um tried to block anyone that Trump brought in.

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Speaker 1: Democrats said that they were very concerned about this, this

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Speaker 1: judge that they had um reviewed his his past rulings

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Speaker 1: and felt that he was going to lend himself to

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Speaker 1: a five to four court uh and restored a kind

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Speaker 1: of conservative tilt of the court, and should be able

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Speaker 1: to use every tool they could to try to keep

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Speaker 1: him off. The real question I think going forward is

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Speaker 1: whether the animosity from the minority party that is sparked

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Speaker 1: by doing something like this because they did change Senate

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Speaker 1: rules with just a simple majority rather than the traditional

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Speaker 1: sixty seven, whether that animosity is going to carry over

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Speaker 1: into other things When they returned from the reset US,

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Speaker 1: they have a government shutdown looming and other very important

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Speaker 1: work coming up. Lauren, what what's some mood among Democrats.

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Speaker 1: Obviously they're disappointed at the outcome, but in terms of

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Speaker 1: the filibuster, UM, they could have saved the filibuster, you know,

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Speaker 1: thinking that, yeah, there's gonna be another Supreme Court nomination

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Speaker 1: UH the next time. Is it your sense that they

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Speaker 1: feel like they did what they that they had no

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Speaker 1: choice in this in this nomination. One thing that I

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Speaker 1: started to notice, um in the days leading up to

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Speaker 1: this was that Chuck Schumer started to note that he

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Speaker 1: was his belief that if there were another, in fact

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Speaker 1: another UH nomination under President Trump, and it was someone

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Speaker 1: who was viewed as more um offensive by their party base,

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Speaker 1: that the Republicans would just change it. Then if you

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Speaker 1: would preserve it, would they would just pull the nuclear

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Speaker 1: what they called the nuclear option, and change the Senate

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Speaker 1: rules at a later date. Anyway, they were also UH,

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Speaker 1: It's worth noting they were also there's a lot of

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Speaker 1: pressure from liberal groups UH for Democrats to oppose this nomination,

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Speaker 1: and letter came up very early on before the confirmation

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Speaker 1: hearings from Mayoral Pro Choice America, Alliance for Justice, and

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Speaker 1: other key groups saying that they felt that the Democrats

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Speaker 1: were not really taking them seriously enough and fighting Gore

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Speaker 1: such as much as they felt it was appropriate. Laura,

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Speaker 1: One question this raises about the filibuster more generally, because

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Speaker 1: now judicial nominations of any kind don't have aren't you

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Speaker 1: can't filibuster them anymore. Uh So, neither party can do

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Speaker 1: that no matter who's in power. But the filibuster for

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Speaker 1: legislation is still alive. So if the President is having

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Speaker 1: trouble getting his legislative package through, let's say, on the

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Speaker 1: Affordable Care Act, they come up with another healthcare planners,

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Speaker 1: or there's some piece of legislation the Democrats really hate

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Speaker 1: and filibuster. Do the Republicans have the appetite to get

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Speaker 1: rid of it for legislation as well? They say that

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Speaker 1: they do not. Mitch McConnell this week pledge that he

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Speaker 1: would not try to change the filibuster to try to

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Speaker 1: add to some pressure on party leaders. Um. We saw

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Speaker 1: Susan Collins, a moderate in the Republican ranks, walking around

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Speaker 1: the Senate for while they were voting on the rules

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Speaker 1: change yesterday, handing out, uh something that people were signing.

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Speaker 1: We asked what that was. And she's circulating a letter

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Speaker 1: to leaders of both parties from as many lawmakers as

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Speaker 1: she can get signatures. From saying we will not support

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Speaker 1: a filibuster rules change for policy and um Mitch McConnell

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Speaker 1: didn't note that at a press conference today, and he

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Speaker 1: said he hopes to get it, get as many signatures

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Speaker 1: as possible. UM. Time will tell, though, if they really

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Speaker 1: are are pushed, if something will change. A number of

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Speaker 1: Senators have said to me and other reporters, John McCain

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Speaker 1: and Lindsay Graham has said that they're concerned that that's

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Speaker 1: a slippery slope and that maybe could happen at some point. Well,

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Speaker 1: our thanks to Laura Livan Bloomberk's comngressional reporter for talking

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Speaker 1: to us about the filibuster. Neil Gorsage is now a

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Speaker 1: member of the United States Supreme Court in the court, well,

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Speaker 1: well almost, Michael. He still he still has to be

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Speaker 1: sworn in. Well, yes, he was going to be, though

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Speaker 1: it's a kind of before. I think he'll probably succeed

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Speaker 1: on the I think he I think he will. But

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Speaker 1: it was pointed out to me recently today that Edwin

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Speaker 1: Stanton back in the eighteen sixty nine was confirmed to

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Speaker 1: the Supreme Court but died before it could be sworn in. Well, folks,

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Speaker 1: that's what you get from Bloomberg's Supreme Court porter Greg

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Speaker 1: Storth Gregg. Thank you for that correction, but I'm gonna

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Speaker 1: stay with my assumption that Neil Gorson j Is in

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Speaker 1: fact going to be on the court. He'll probably figure

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Speaker 1: how to get this right