Moments after pulling the trigger, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) said Thursday that an unnamed Senate Republican approached him with a deal on President Barack Obama’s judicial nominees in order to avoid a filibuster rules change via the “nuclear option.”

“Last night I got a call from one of my Republican friends saying, Harry, we’ve got a deal for you,” he said at a Capitol Hill press conference. “I’m anxious to listen. What is this — we’ll give you one of the D.C. Circuit [Court nominee], that way it will be 5-4.”

“I just can’t imagine — and one of my friends, he’s a friend, anyway, we’ve been in the House together, Senate together, a long type, what would you do? What would you do, I said?” he added. “And he, just the two of us, he didn’t want to, he said I’m not answering that question.”

“Everyone knows that what has gone on is absolutely unfair and wrong and I’m glad we changed it. It’s a day of freshness for this great country of ours,” he said.