David Perdue: “it is humbling to be on the floor of the U.S. Senate with colleagues like Senator Lankford from Oklahoma. It is an honor…”

“it is humbling to be on the floor of the U.S. Senate with colleagues like Senator Lankford from Oklahoma. It is an honor to listen to his words, to his heart, on an issue like today because this is, I believe, a historic day. On January 31 of this year, I had the great honor of being invited to the White House when President Donald Trump announced his nominee for Associate Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, Judge Neil Gorsuch. It was a professional rollout of this nomination, but it spoke more to the man, the individual, Judge Gorsuch, than it did to the circumstance surrounding it. Today, I want to again discuss Judge Gorsuch's nomination and the 200-plus years of historical precedent put on the line today. As an outsider of this political process, it is clear to me what is going on here. It really has nothing to do with Judge Gorsuch. The minority party today abandoned 230 years of tradition because of politics, in my opinion. Never before in the U.S. history has a purely partisan filibuster killed a Supreme Court nomination. Never before, in the history of our country, has a partisan filibuster killed a district judge nomination. Never before, and until 2003, has a partisan filibuster killed a circuit judge nomination. Mr. President, 2003 was the first time in our history that the rules of the Senate were used in a purely partisan way to stop a judicial nomination.…”