diluted with ambiguity one could not see where he stood even ob big and long-settled cases. based on husband record at the department of justice, his tenure on the bench, his appearance before the senate and his written questions tr the record, i cannot support this nomination. all of this as president trump is meeting with several foreign leaders this week. and the senate intelligence committee continues to meet and investigate behind closed doors asking a key question in the next phase of the russian investigation. a lot to get to over the next two hours including the white house daily briefing. let s begin with the breaking news on this historic moment there on capitol hill. a headline was written. the senate is about to change forever. that s right. it s certainly a big moment reached today when democrats
i didn t get answers at the hearing because we had both of them together and i had some follow-up questions. dana, lucky me i get you on a panel. let s begin with just to stet the stage. i m told the vote was 11-9 down party lines. exactly, so viewers are aware what the kmecommittee is voting is the deputy attorney general, which is incredibly important since jeff sessions, the attorney general, recused himself on russia. another justice department nomination. the headline is, as you said, looking on my e-mail from our correspondent in the room that the committee just passed judge gorsuch out of committee. which means it s headed to the floor of the senate, which it says the vote was 11-9. so party line vote effectively. let s go back to where we were. let me turn to you on they were
issue. this was a nomination to be a chief justice. that was not a partisan filibuster. both parties supported that filibuster. other than that one example, there s never been a successful filibuster of a supreme court nominee. and it s unfortunate to see us potentially move iing toward th kind of outcome now. it really does reflect hutch more on the senate than it does on judge gorsuch. last night, i cut my hand on a piece of sheet metal ask had to get five stitches. now that ranks as the second most painful experience i have experienced this week. what we saw in the committee hearing today, to me, really is an amazing theater that we have created here to create can this pretext for a partisan filibuster. it s not going to be successful. judge gorsuch is going to get nominated because he s extremely qualified. he did an extraordinary job in
that i will not support judge gorsuch s nomination in the judiciary committee today. all this math is a complicated senate procedure boils down to this. the only way gorsuch can get through and become the next supreme court justice is if senate republicans go ahead and make good on their vow to break senate rules later in the week invoking the nuclear option. that changes the rules of the senate where neil gorsuch and further supreme court nominees down the line would only need 51 votes to get confirmed. we heard from mitch mcconnell many times in recent week, most notably just yesterday. he s vowing neil gorsuch will get through. that s your big clue on where this is all headed. thanks so much. let me bring in my panel. dana bash, chief political correspondent. jeffrey toobin, former federal
prosecutor, aaron lewis, political commentator. welcome to all of you. ladies first, da that. we have underscored how likely the rules will change that with a simple majority with this nuclear option if it goes through, there are ramifications short-term and long-term. i want you to explain what those are first. exactly. . i m going to let jeffrey talk about the implications for the supreme court, but if i may want to talk about the implications for partisanship in washington. i m sure viewers are listening to me say this and think, really, could get it worse and the answer is yes. the answer is yes, it could, and it will get worse if and when the rules change for this supreme court nomination to make it so that the supreme court nominations only need 51 votes. in the short-term, it means that