We are going to turn to the history that is happening right now in the U. S. Senate, where Republicans have approved what everyone is calling the nuclear option. It clears the way for Neil Gorsuch to be confirmed to the Supreme Court with only a simple majority of fifty one votes. That means the Senate fifty two Republicans don't need any Democratic support, although they may get a handful of votes uh to fill the vacancy that has been on the court since Anton and Scalia died in February
last year. With me here in the Bloomberg studio to talk about this is Bloomberg Congressional team leader Kevin Whitelaw. He's also my boss. Uh, Kevin, thanks for making the time to come over here. Um, can you just walk us through what has happened today and then and then what will happen with the vote tomorrow? Wells have been
pretty widely telegraphed. W We're basically looking at a pretty big historic move where the where the Democrats did vote as expected to try to block the nomination, and uh, Mitch McConnell, a Republican leader, made a series of motions that resulted in Republicans voting to change the Senate rules. So this follows on a change the Democrats themselves made back in to change the rules for all the nominees
except for Supreme Court nominations. UH. That's basically was to take away the ability of of h take away the need for a sixty vote threshold to to to advance before you could get a formal final vote. It's called the filibuster. That margin was taken down to fifty. It's been now taken out of fifty for all nominees, including
the Supreme Court. UH. And so Senate's going to go into it's likely another sort of shutdown mode in terms of of things grinding to a halt, a lot of a lot of partisan name calling and a fair amount of fallout on that front. But it will mean that, you know, Garcage will become another sprint sprint Court justice, filling out the court to nine. Uh. And that formal vote actually to confirm him, we're expecting on Friday, And this is not a total party line vote. How many
Democrats do we expect will ultimately vote for Neil Garcage. Well, there were four Democrat who voted to go ahead, and advance him. So we'll see in the end how they respond uh tomorrow. But there were several Democrats that did go ahead with the notion to have cloture Um at least one of them. We think we're we're going to advance him, but then not actually support him in the end. So we'll see the exact number tomorrow when it comes. So it's not it will not be a party line vote.
There will be two or three Democrats at least we expect to vote with the majority of republic With every Republican pretty much everyone in the Senator is saying how much they regret what is happening. Now, Democrats didn't have you know, they could have pulled their punches and not made this happen. Why did they feel like they needed to do this even though the result was going to be the same. And Neil Gors which is still in
the Supreme going on the Supreme Court. Well, you know, Democrats said they regret this, Republicans said they regret it. But you're right, Democrats could have taken another path. Republicans could also have taken another path. Let's be clear that both sides are are full complicit players. They knew exactly what was going to happen, and they went ahead and did it. So, um, I think for for UH and what that tells you is, frankly, both saw are playing
to their basis here. The Republicans absolutely we're going to confirm the Neo Garca no matter what in the Republic and the Democrats really felt they needed to do anything they could to block it given um, particularly how President Obama's UH final nominee to the Supreme Court, Merrick Garland, was blocked for a year by Republicans. So you had this sign where both sides are playing to their base. Um. But yeah, but every side that this is a really bad,
bad outcome. I don't think the politically though, it actually does make perverse logics. Some have argued, and I think I've even argued that the Democrats might have been better off saving the filibuster for the next Supreme Court nomination, which could really swing the court. What's what's your take on that? Yeah, I think this is a really tough question.
I think the one of the main arguments for for the Democrats and saying that they should have allowed this nomination proceived is that this notion of needing sixty votes did still, perhaps um sort of helped constrain the choice that the president faces when when he or she is trying to make a decision about who they nominate the first place. Do you take someone who's a little more of the mains, a little main you know, someone mainstream with sort of the usual qualifications. Do you take someone
out of the mainstream. Do you take someone who's considered even more extreme? So there is a risk that this sort of unbounds the president, and in the choice for the next nominee, Democrats sort of felt like, you know, if they didn't, if they didn't, you know, they were gonna change it. Whenever it was blocked, they were going
to change it, So it didn't really matter. I think the problem Democrats faced with this particular move was I don't think they actually ended up convincing enough Americans that Neil Garca was such a sort of threat to the court or a bad pick or unqualified, so that it became a kind of groundswell level of fight you had over sake Clarence Thomas or you know, or Robert Bourke, where you really had a huge ground swell. A lot of out there Democrats weren't happy they painted you know,
Gorcitch is being out of the mainstream. I'm not sure that really stuck in the court of public opinion. And that may be in partcast of so much else going on. We only have about thirty seconds, but very quickly. Uh, is this going to stop with the filibuster of Supreme Court nominees or is it there the possibility that the
Republicans will go nuclear on the filibuster for legislation as well. Yeah, And that's the thing that would really change the way the Senate works, in the way this town works, is if they get rid of that sixty vote threshold for legislation. At this point, most Republicans, including Mitch McConnell, have said, no, there's not the support to change it. They don't want to do it. That's not going to do it. That would just make the Senate just like the House. So
why have it? Um But the pressure could build, and depending on what the President wants to do over the next couple of years and how much the Senate frustrates his ability to do that, there could be a ton of pressure coming on down from the White House. Okay, thanks very much, Kevin Whitelaw, Congressional team leader here for Bloomberg News, talking about the Neil Gorcers domination and the expected confirmation tomorrow, probably tomorrow after, late tomorrow afternoon or
maybe even the evening. Uh. Coming up, we're gonna talk about some acquittals on lib orary manipulation. That's a trial that went on in London. That's coming up on Bloomberg Law