MSNBC host Rachel Maddow said Tuesday night that President Trump's nominee to the Supreme Court, Judge Neil Gorsuch, is a "mainstream" choice for a Republican president.
"It seems like the choice of Judge Gorsuch is a relatively mainstream choice you might expect from any Republican president," Maddow said on her show.
Congressional Democrats have said they want a "mainstream" candidate to fill the current vacancy on the Supreme Court and that they would not vote for someone who is considered more extreme on certain controversial issues.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D., N.Y.) has been calling for Trump to nominate such a jurist since the November election.
"Well first, I hope President Trump picks a mainstream candidate," Schumer said on NBC's "Meet the Press" on Nov. 20. "A mainstream candidate is somebody you may not agree with on every issue but basically believes in precedent and basically believes in following the law."
The New York Democrat made a similar call for a "moderate" at a press conference last week.
Trump formally nominated Gorsuch as his Supreme Court pick on Tuesday night. Gorsuch is known for his similarities to the late Justice Antonin Scalia in both the way he writes and the way he views the law and the Constitution, the Washington Free Beacon reported.
Gorsuch is known as a conservative judge who, like Scalia, is a strong textualist with an originalist interpretation of the Constitution. He has pushed back against efforts to derail religious expression in public spaces and has defended religious exemptions, objecting to the Affordable Care Act's contraceptive mandate.
Gorsuch has also been compared to Scalia because of his writing skills.