(CNN) Democratic Sen. Jeff Merkley says President Trump Supreme Court nominee Neil Gorsuch is on the "far extreme right" and slammed congressional Republicans for what he said was the "theft" of a Supreme Court seat.

He was referring to former President Barack Obama's nomination of Merrick Garland to fill the vacant Supreme Court seat, which Republicans refused to consider as Obama's term reached its end.

"It was a nuclear option," Merkley said on CNN's "New Day."

"The theft of a Supreme Court seat has never been done before," continued the junior senator from Oregon. "Never before has a majority refused to hold a conversation and a vote ... Therefore we have an illegitimate status really for this seat."

"You take that and then you throw in the new nominee, who is of the far extreme right and you have a formulation," Merkley continued, pointing to the nominee's positions on LGBTQ rights in courts and class action lawsuits.

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