Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R., Ky.) said on Sunday that he was open to the possibility of filling a vacancy in the Supreme Court in 2020.
Fox News Sunday anchor Chris Wallace asked McConnell about his decision to block former President Barack Obama's Supreme Court nominee Merrick Garland because it was a presidential election year, if he would do the same thing if a vacancy opened on the high court in 2020.
"I have to pick up on something but when you blocked Merrick Garland's nomination from President Obama, you basically said that we don't do this in a presidential election year and that we wait until the election and then whoever the people choose, they get to pick the Supreme Court nominee but what you just said now but it's a question of whether or not it's the party in control of the Senate is different than the president. The question I guess I'm getting to is, if Donald Trump were to name somebody in the final year of his first term in 2020, are you saying that you would go ahead with that nomination?" Wallace asked.
"I understand your question of what I told you is what the history of the Senate has been coming up to go back to 1880 to find the last time a vacancy created in a presidential election year on the Supreme Court was confirmed by a Senate of a different party than the president," McConnell responded.
Back in 2016, McConnell refused to hold hearings or meetings with Garland, leaving open the seat for the majority of the year. McConnell cited the "Biden rule," where former Sen. Joe Biden and chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee argued in 1992 to withhold any nominee to the Supreme Court until after the election.
Now, it appears McConnell is open to the possibility of confirming a Supreme Court justice during a presidential election year.
"If you can answer my direct question," Wallace said.
"Will see if there's a vacancy in 2020," McConnell said.
"But you're not ruling out the possibility since you're the Republican majority leader and there's a Republican president that you would go for and push the nomination of a Trump nominee in the election year," Wallace continued.
"What I'm telling you is, the history is coming up to go back to 1880 defined the last time Senate controlled party different from the president filled a vacancy on the Supreme Court that was created in the middle of a presidential election year. That's been the history," McConnell said.
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