Sen. Marie Cantwell (D., Wash.) ignored questions about former Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D., Nev.) using the nuclear option on the filibuster for presidential nominations back in 2013.
NBC "Meet the Press" anchor Chuck Todd played a clip of then Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R., Ky.) saying his Democratic colleagues would regret using the nuclear option.
"I would say to my friends on the other side of the aisle, you'll regret this and you may regret it a lot sooner than you think," McConnell warned back in 2013.
"Do you regret it?" Todd asked the senator.
"Well, we're dealing with what we're dealing with today, and I doubt that whatever the circumstances of the rules were, then or now, that they would be proceeding on this with 51 votes," Canwell said. "The issue is, there are so many things before the American people and this position will change the balance of the court. The president has the right to nominate somebody, as he says –"
"Senator, you want to just ignore that," Todd said. "You want to ignore that past. That's why we're in this situation now where a bare majority decides the future of the court."
Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy announced last week that he would retire, effective July 31, giving President Donald Trump the opportunity to make two appointments in two years to the nation's highest court. The vacancy sets up a bitter confirmation fight right before the midterm elections, where Republicans only have a single vote majority in the Senate. Despite the slim majority, Senate Republicans only need a 51-vote majority to confirm the Supreme Court nominee after McConnell, now the majority leader, changed the rules to allow it in the case of Supreme Court justice confirmations. McConnell's move followed the precedent set by Reid when he eliminated the filibuster for judicial nominees and presidential appointments in 2013.
Cantwell continued to avoid answering the question.
"Well, it's what we're dealing with today and I'm not ignoring it," Cantwell said. "But I tell you, Chuck, I've been around my state this weekend and people are anxious about health care ... [and] they want to know what is going to happen with this Court nominee. They are so anxious that key rights that have been bestowed upon Americans are going to be rolled back. So yes, they want to know what we are going to do about it. What I want to make perfectly clear is that this is not a normal Supreme Court justice vote."