SUPREME COURT/TRUMP PEOPLE/NEIL GORSUCH: “Two Democratic senators from solidly Republican states announced their support on Thursday [3-30-17] for President Trump’s Supreme Court pick, Judge Neil M. Gorsuch, giving the nominee a measure of bipartisan sheen but doing little to dissuade leading Democrats from planning to block him.
The lawmakers — Senator Joe Manchin III of West Virginia and Senator Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota — had been among a handful of Democrats whom Republicans have eyed as possible supporters of Judge Gorsuch. Each comes from a state that Mr. Trump easily won in November, and each is up for re-election next year.
‘I have not found any reasons why this jurist should not be a Supreme Court justice,’ Mr. Manchin said in a statement.
Yet with Judge Gorsuch’s nomination expected to clear a committee vote and proceed to the Senate floor next week, other Democrats remain confident that he will not earn the support necessary to break a filibuster. This would require at least eight Democratic senators to join the Republicans’ 52-seat majority.”
-Matt Flegenheimer, “Two Democratic Senators Back Gorsuch, but Can’t Sway Colleagues,” The New York Times online, March 30, 2017