Vice President Mike Pence is pledging that Supreme Court nominee Neil Gorsuch will be seated on the high court "one way or the other."

Pence's comments during a speech in Philadelphia to the Federalist Society, a conservative legal group, echoed President Donald Trump's comments from earlier in the week. Trump urged the Senate's Republican leader to scrap longstanding rules and "go nuclear" if Democrats block Gorsuch.

Trump on Tuesday nominated the 49-year-old Gorsuch — a Denver-based U.S. appellate court judge — to a lifetime appointment on the nation's highest court.

Pence says the Supreme Court seat left vacant by Justice Antonin Scalia's death belongs to the American people.

"This seat does not belong to any party or any ideology or any interest group, this seat on the Supreme Court belongs to the American people, and the American people deserve a vote on the floor of the United States Senate," Pence said.

The vice president says he and Trump will work with the Senate to ensure Gorsuch gets an up or down vote.