Chuck Schumer: Neil Gorsuch faces 'uphill climb'

By , Susan Crabtree

Published March 30, 2017

Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said Judge Neil Gorsuch faces an "uphill climb" to overcome a Democratic filibuster he is leading and argued that Republicans will be solely to blame if they blow up Senate rules to seat him on the Supreme Court.

"[Senate Democrats] are going to do the right thing, and it will a real uphill climb for him to get those 60 votes," Schumer told reporters after a closed-door meeting with his Democratic colleagues Tuesday afternoon.

The New York Democrat was referring to the 60 votes Gorsuch's nomination needs to overcome a filibuster and move to a vote on final passage on the Senate floor.

Schumer is urging his Senate colleagues to support the filibuster and block Gorsuch's nomination because he argues that Gorsuch wasn't forthcoming during his confirmation hearings and seemed to have an almost "instinctive" tendency to side with special interests over the "average person."