Graham: GOP Forced to Use Nuclear Option for Gorsuch 'Outrageous'

It is "outrageous" that Senate Republicans may have to use the nuclear option in order to confirm Supreme Court nominee Judge Neil Gorsuch, Sen. Lindsey Graham said Tuesday.

"It's just politics replacing reason," the South Carolina Republican told Fox News' "Fox and Friends" program. "If [Democrats] filibuster this guy, that means that they have just been taken over by the left, and want to deny President [Donald] Trump what President [Barack] Obama had, which was the ability to pick a Supreme Court justice."

Graham said Trump "could not have chosen a more qualified person."

Gorsuch decided 2,700 cases over a period of 10 1/2 years, said Graham, and only one was reversed by the Supreme Court. Further, he said that Gorsuch has received the highest ranking by the American Bar Association and people who have worked with him said he is at the top of the legal profession.

"This is a low point for me," Graham said of the looming Senate battle over Gorsuch. "I voted for [Sonia] Sotomayor and [Elena] Kagan because I thought they were qualified. I didn't vote for President Obama but he did win. What does this tell us? It means from the Democratic point of view, qualifications of the nominee no longer matter."

Democrats are "giving in to the most liberal people" in the United States with their plans to block Gorsuch's nomination, and that will "hurt the judiciary for years to come," said Graham.

"We have no options," said the senator. "I'm not going to sit on the sidelines and watch them get their judges and we never get any of ours."

Graham on Tuesday also lauded Trump's call to back off from operations at the Pentagon and allow generals to "be generals," as the Obama administration engaged in micromanagement.

"They would have national security meetings whether or not you could deploy two helicopters," said Graham. "This is a great news for those fighting this war and bad news for ISIL."

He also applauded the president's decisions concerning engaging ISIS. This includes adding troops in Iraq, which Graham said "will expedite ISIL's demise sooner. The sooner they are destroyed, the safer we are here at home."

• Gorsuch: 'No Such Thing as Republican or Democratic Judge'
• Sen. Coons Doubts Gorsuch Will Get 60 Votes for Confirmation