Trump urges Senate to change rules, push through court pick

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump urged Majority leader Mitch McConnell today to change the rules of the Senate if necessary to swiftly push through his Supreme Court nominee, Judge Neil Gorsuch.

Trump's words immediately escalated what's shaping up as a feverish partisan battle over the Supreme Court vacancy.

Trump's endorsement of a scenario known on Capitol Hill as the "nuclear option" came the morning after he announced Gorsuch's nomination.

"I would say, if you can, Mitch, go nuclear because that would be an absolute shame if a man of this quality was caught up in the web," Trump said at the White House.

McConnell has not said whether he might invoke the nuclear option if minority Democrats block Gorsuch's confirmation, as several already are threatening to do. But the Senate leader has said repeatedly that, one way or another, Gorsuch will be confirmed.

The nuclear option would mean unilaterally lowering the threshold needed to approve Gorsuch from 60 to 51 votes, so that Republicans could use their 52-vote majority to put him on the court without Democrats' consent.

Speaking on the Senate floor today about the same time Trump made his views known, McConnell said he expects to see Democrats "giving the new nominee a fair consideration and up-or-down vote just as we did for past presidents of both parties."