Senate Democrats' Gorsuch filibuster allowed McConnell to go "nuclear"

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, speaking to Washington Post columnist Marc Thiessen, said Democrats' filibuster of the nomination of Neil Gorsuch to the Supreme Court last year helped persuade Senate Republicans who had been against the "nuclear option" for federal judicial appointments — introduced in 2013 by Senate Democrats to advance nominees with a simple majority — to expand it to Supreme Court nominations.

What he's saying: "I argued to my people if this guy can’t get 60 votes then nobody a Republican president nominates is going to get 60 votes. ... That’s what allowed me to get people who were reluctant and complaining about using the nuclear option four years earlier to do it."