"The Republican caucus, in the end, if they have to change the rules, it's their decision, but I think they will do that if they need to do it".
"Senate Republicans are acting like if Gorsuch doesn't get 60 votes they have no choice but to change the rules", Schumer said.
Two Senate Democrats facing tough re-elections next year say they will vote for President Donald Trump's Supreme Court nominee.
Schumer, of NY, had tough words for his Republican counterpart, Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, in an interview with The Associated Press.
Toomey said he is confident that Republicans have enough votes - there are 52 Republicans in the 100-member Senate - to take what is known on Capitol Hill as the "nuclear option" because it would amount to a dramatic departure from Senate norms of bipartisanship and collegiality. "So how do you solve that?"
A vote on the nominee is scheduled for Friday April 7. Jeff Flake, R-Arizona, said about the nuclear option.
The rule change, which would forever eliminate the filibuster from interfering with the Supreme Court confirmation process, would only exacerbate the hyperpartisan culture in Washington.
"This is a really hard decision for me", McCaskill, D-Mo., said in a statement.
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National Republican Senatorial Committee spokeswoman Katie Martin said McCaskill's "decision today might appease the extreme liberal elite but, unfortunately for Claire, those folks don't vote in Missouri".
The issue has become particularly divisive after the Republican majority denied a hearing to Merrick Garland, President Obama's nomination to fill the space on the Supreme Court left following the death of Antonin Scalia. He has indicated he may support a deal to avoid a filibuster.
Her "no" vote shrinks the pool of Democrats who have undecided or unclear positions on Gorsuch to nine.
In a statement, Gorusch's spokesman, Ron Bonjean, told the Guardian: "Judge Gorsuch has met with almost 80 Senators". And she cited his support for the Supreme Court's Citizens United decision, which allows corporations and unions to contribute unlimited amounts of money to political parties and candidates.
"I could not find any just reason with all his qualifications and all his experience and how he's ranked as one of the best jurists", Manchin said.
In the recording obtained by the paper, McCaskill says she's comfortable voting against Gorsuch, "but I'm very uncomfortable being part of a strategy that's going to open up the Supreme Court to a complete change". In 2013, Democrats were in the majority and upset about appellate court nominees getting blocked. It is especially hard to buy into that narrative considering that Senator Bernie Sanders was a big victor in Heitkamp's state, indicating that there is an untapped bubble of progressivism in the state that the DNC is feeding a steady diet of nothing but purple Democrats.
According to Politico, progressive groups are already planning to lobby the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee to withhold campaign funding for the two Democrats, both up for reelection in 2018, and any other Democratic senator that supports Gorsuch.
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