CNN host Erin Burnett told her guests on Monday night that Senate Democrats were "essentially forcing" the Supreme Court to go longer without nine justices as they look to filibuster the confirmation of Judge Neil Gorsuch, President Donald Trump's nominee to the high court.
Burnett previewed the segment by playing three clips of Democratic Senators discussing the importance of having nine justices versus eight justices.
"The Supreme Court of the United States has nine members, not eight. We need that ninth member," Sen. Bernie Sanders (I., Vt.) said.
"The Supreme Court needs nine justices to function properly. It is vital to our judicial system," Sen. Claire McCaskill (D., Mo.) said.
"Every day that goes by without a ninth justice is another day the American's peoples' business is not getting done, " Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D., N.Y.) said.
"And yet now, Dana, it's the Democrats who are essentially forcing the court to go even longer with only eight," Burnett said to CNN's Dana Bash following the clips.
Bash agreed with Burnett, but said that the Democrats had a strategy for filibustering Gorsuch.
"The Democrats would argue that 'It's not that we don't think there should be a ninth Supreme Court justice...we just don't think it should be Judge Gorsuch,'" Bash said. "They don't think that he is the right guy."
Bash pointed out that Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D., Mass.) opposed Gorsuch from the start because she views the nomination as a "stolen seat." Bash also noted that many other Democrats oppose Gorsuch because they want a more moderate candidate, like former President Obama's nominee Judge Merrick Garland.
"This is really all politics towards the Democratic base," Burnett said to CNN's Jeffrey Toobin.
Toobin disagreed with Burnett, and said that the debate is about who should be on the Supreme Court. While he admitted that the Supreme Court rules on political issues, he said that the issues are "political about something very important."
"To Dana's point, the Democrats can go ahead and pander to their base or do what their base wants. pander may not be the correct word, but they can do that because the outcome is not in question," Burnett said.
"I don't think either party is engaged in hypocrisy," Toobin responded. "iIthink it's just a substantive disagreement about what the Supreme Court should stand for and that's really important and it's going to matter for decades and decades."