President Donald Trump told Fox News’ Sean Hannity that he is fine with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell using the so-called “nuclear option” to get his forthcoming Supreme Court pick approved.
“We have obstructionists, these are people that don’t want,” Trump said in a preview of tonight’s interview. “I think… what they did to Jeff Sessions, who’s a great man and a wonderful man, and then they delayed it another week because they have a one week delay option. That’s not fair to a man.”
“Other people are delayed, look at Pompeo for CIA,” he continued. “This is a great choice. Everybody agrees. And they delayed him a number of days also, even though he was fully approved and voted on by, you know, I mean very, very great choice. And why are they doing that?”
The “nuclear option” refers to a parliamentary procedure that allows the presiding officer of the Senate–McConnell in this case–to rule that a matter before the body is a constitutional question. In that case, the Senate can overrule a rule or precedent by a simple majority vote as opposed to a 60-vote supermajority. Among other things, this allows the Senate to pass legislation without threat of filibuster, which requires 60 votes to override.
It’s worth noting that Republicans, who previously attempted to get rid of the filibuster entirely during the George W. Bush administration, adopted a policy of lockstep obstruction once Barack Obama assumed office with both houses of congress controlled by the Democratic Party. The result was that a 60-vote majority became a de facto requirement for legislation to pass under the Obama administration. Democrats managed to reform the filibuster slightly in 2013, but notably did not remove the ability of Republicans (Or, now, democrats) to filibuster SCOTUS nominees.
There has been a vacant seat on the Supreme Court since the death of Justice Antonin Scalia in February 2016. President Obama sought to appoint judge Merrick Garland to the seat but was blocked by Senate Republicans.
During the 2016 Presidential campaign, Trump released a list of 11 people he would nominate to the seat, who he felt are “representative of the kind of constitutional principles I value and, as President, I plan to use this list as a guide to nominate our next United States Supreme Court Justices.”