Mary Mancini, chair of the Tennessee Democratic Party, released the following statement on Senator Corker and Senator Alexander supporting the "nuclear option:"

"Senator Corker and Senator Alexander have fundamentally changed the United States Senate today. They will try to justify their actions with a false equivalence, citing Leader Reid changing the rules for lower court and executive branch nominees in 2013. They will fail to tell the people of Tennessee that that followed unprecedented obstruction of President Obama's nominees. Senate Republicans, including Corker and Alexander, used the filibuster 82 times for Obama nominees. Prior to that, only 86 filibusters had been used against the nominees of all previous presidents combined.

Senator Corker spoke on the senate floor about the Gang of 14, and the criteria that group made to confirm judges. Yet he again failed to tell the people of Tennessee that Judge Merrick Garland exactly fit that criteria and still the Republicans in the senate would not even grant him a hearing, something Senator Corker and Senator Alexander condoned, breaking 230 years of precedent.

It is a shameful day. At a time when the President of the United State is under investigation by the FBI for possibly colluding with a foreign government during his campaign, Senator Corker and Senator Alexander took this extreme step to confirm a judge who has consistently sided with corporations over people. They have proven to all of us that their loyalties lie with Donald Trump and corporate special interests and we will see the consequences of it in the future decisions of the Supreme Court."