A new NBC News/SurveyMonkey poll released Thursday shows that a majority of Americans do not want Democrats to filibuster Supreme Court nominee Neil Gorsuch.
According to the survey, 54 percent of participants say that Senate Democrats should allow a vote on Gorsuch while only 37 percent say that Democrats should prevent a vote from happening by filibustering the nomination, so debate on Gorsuch does not end.
Among Democrats, 64 percent within the poll want senators in their party to stop the Gorsuch confirmation compared to 31 percent, who say the party should not stop a final confirmation vote from happening.
An overwhelming majority of Republicans in the survey, 84 percent, want Gorsuch confirmed without a filibuster compared to 11 percent who believe otherwise.
Additionally, a majority of independents, 58 percent, in the poll want Democrats to not filibuster Gorsuch in contrast to 30 percent who want to see his confirmation vote prevented.
The NBC News/SurveyMonkey poll was conducted online from March 24 through March 28 among a national sample of 7,675 adults who are likely voters. Poll results have an error estimate of plus or minus 1.7 percentage points.
Republicans say they are ready to change the rules of the filibuster if the Democrats prevent Gorsuch’s confirmation vote from happening.
“They’re acting as if a rules change is inevitable, like it’s their only choice if 60 senators don’t agree Judge Gorsuch should be confirmed. They’re wrong,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said at a press conference Wednesday. “The answer is not to change the rules. It’s to change the nominee.”
However, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell does not appear ready to convince President Donald Trump to change the nominee.
“People like David Frederick — a longtime Democrat and board member of the left-leaning American Constitution Society — who may have summed it up best in a recent Washington Post op-ed. ‘The Senate should confirm [Gorsuch],’ Frederick wrote, ‘because there is no principled reason to vote no,'” McConnell said on the Senate floor Thursday.
“No principled reason to oppose him — none. As this American Constitution Society member says, there is not one single principled reason to oppose Judge Gorsuch, so it makes sense that Democrats can’t come up with a single substantive reason to oppose him either,” he added.