Senator Tom Cotton told CNN’s Jake Tapper Tuesday that Republican plans to use the nuclear option will fix a problem that Democrats created.
“Senate Republicans appear poised to trigger what’s called the nuclear option changing, Senate rules to confirm Judge Neil Gorsuch to the Supreme Court requiring 51 votes instead of 60 for cloture,” Tapper first posed to the Arkansas Republican. “Do you worry at all about this rule making, how it might change or alter the character of the Senate?”
“No, Jake, I don’t,” Cotton replied. “For 214 years the Senate had never, not once, in a partisan filibuster defeated a nominee to the courts or the executive branch.”
“That all changed in 2003 when Chuck Schumer persuaded Democrats to begin filibustering judges. Then that continued under the Obama era, and the Democrats used the so-called nuclear option in 2013.”
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“There’s a world of difference between Republicans using a tool that the Democrats first abused in 2013 to restore a 214 year old tradition that the Democrats first violated back in 2003,” Cotton added. “After this week, we’ll be back to where that 214 tradition was, which is that nominees should get an up or down vote.”
“That’s probably where we should’ve stayed all along.”