"Make no mistake: If we do hold the line with 60 votes, Mitch McConnell will change the rules," Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand said. | AP Photo Sen. Gillibrand predicts Gorsuch will be confirmed

One way or another, Neil Gorsuch will be confirmed to the Supreme Court, Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand predicted on Tuesday evening.

The New York Democrat said either Gorsuch will garner 60 votes or Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell will rewrite the Senate rules to allow Gorsuch to be confirmed by a simple majority. It's a rare concession that Republicans will win what's shaping up to be a vicious fight between a Democratic base urging party leaders to fight President Donald Trump's pick and Republicans who have said they will confirm Gorsuch by any means necessary.


While Gillibrand urged her colleagues to "vote their conscience" on Gorsuch during an interview with New York news channel NY1, she said that regardless of Democratic tactics, "ultimately, yeah I believe he will be" approved.

The senator said she opposes his nomination "because he is so ultra-right-wing conservative."

"I hope we do vote him down. But make no mistake: If we do hold the line with 60 votes, Mitch McConnell will change the rules the next day," Gillibrand said. "I do not have any hope that he won't change the rules the minute he doesn't get his way. So it likely will be 51 votes, regardless, at any given time that a nominee is blocked."

Gillibrand, the subject of much speculation as a 2020 presidential contender, also said that she plans to serve a full six-year term if reelected to the Senate next year. She's voted against most of Trump's nominees and was the sole "no" vote against Defense Secretary James Mattis.

Earlier on Tuesday, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said Republicans will need 60 votes to get Gorsuch confirmed and predicted the nominee will have "a very tough row to hoe to get those 60 votes." Gorsuch has not had his confirmation hearing yet, and his vote is more than a month away. Some progressives believe the party should do everything it can to stop Gorsuch.

McConnell has never explicitly said he will change the filibuster rules to allow the 52-seat Republican majority to evade the chamber's 60-vote threshold on the high court pick. A number of GOP senators say that the "nuclear option" of a unilateral rules change is on the table, though some Republicans are skeptical about modifying the filibuster and that particular change could struggle to win the requisite support of 50 GOP senators.