Sen. Manchin on Gorsuch: 'Let's give the man a chance'

Sen. Joe Manchin, considered one of the most imperiled lawmakers in the upcoming 2018 midterm elections, said Tuesday that he is “anxious” to meet with Supreme Court nominee Neil Gorsuch and that Democrats should not launch an all-out effort to block his confirmation as Republicans did with Merrick Garland.

“Here is where I come from. What the Republicans did with Merrick Garland was absolutely unbelievable to me. It was a disaster. I was embarrassed by how Mitch McConnell led the Republicans not to even be decent and considerate enough to even talk to the gentleman, let alone vote for him,” Manchin (D-W.Va.) said Wednesday morning on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.”


“If this is the right person or not, I don't know but we should go through the process. I'm anxious to sit and talk to him,” he continued. “I understand he has impeccable, basically, credentials and well thought of in a class, basically, with Barack Obama at Harvard and he got overwhelmingly unanimous consent when he came through this process before. So let's find out. I don't know until I talk to him. I'm anxious to do that.”

Before Gorsuch’s nomination was announced, some Senate Democrats had vowed to block whoever President Donald Trump nominated to the court, turnabout for the GOP’s treatment of Garland, who was nominated during President Barack Obama’s final year in office but was never given a confirmation hearing. Republicans insisted that the next president, not Obama, should choose the replacement for Associate Justice Antonin Scalia, who died unexpectedly last year.

But despite the GOP’s successful blockade against Garland, Manchin said Democrats have an obligation to treat Gorsuch fairly.

“Let's give the man a chance. Talk to him. My goodness,” he said. “Don't shut it down before we even get started. And two wrongs don't make a right.”

As a general guideline, Manchin said Supreme Court nominees should be passed through the Senate on a bipartisan basis. With that in mind, he said Gorsuch should have to clear a 60-vote threshold in order to be confirmed.

Manchin said he would oppose the so-called “nuclear option,” implemented by former Sen. Harry Reid when he was majority leader to allow cabinet-level appointees and lower level judges to be confirmed with just 51 votes, for Supreme Court nominees. The West Virginia lawmaker said Reid was “absolutely dead wrong” to have instituted it in the first place.

Manchin was also up-front and optimistic about his election prospects two years from now. Trump won West Virginia in last year’s election by 42 points, but Manchin noted that 2012 GOP nominee Mitt Romney also won the state by a wide margin. Despite Romney’s strong showing, Manchin won reelection over his Republican opponent by 24 points. He told the “Morning Joe” panel that “I’ve been in a tough state for a while.”

"My consolation is, if I get defeated, I get to go home. I get to go back to beautiful West Virginia. I'm fine with that. I can live with that,” he continued. “In West Virginia they’ll look at the individual, make a decision. And I appreciate that. And I really applaud my wonderful constituents back home. But with that being said, I didn't come here to say, ‘oh my goodness, if I do this I might not get re-elected.’”