Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) refused on Sunday to say that he would block Donald Trump's Supreme Court nominees in the final year of his term as was done to President Barack Obama's nominee, Merrick Garland.
In an interview on Fox News Sunday, Fox News host Chris Wallace noted that Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh had received different treatment from that of Garland.
"We didn't attack Merrick Garland's background and try to destroy him," McConnell argued. "We didn't go on a search and destroy mission. We simply followed the tradition in America, which is that if you have a party -- a Senate of a different party then the president then you don't fill a vacancy created in a presidential [election] year."
"I have to pick up on something you said," Wallace redirected. "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."
Wallace added: "But what you just said now was it's a question of whether or not the party in control of the Senate is different than the president."
"If Donald Trump were to name somebody in the final year of his first term in 2020, are you saying that you wold go ahead with that?" the Fox News host wondered.
"I understand your question," McConnell replied without answering the question.
"So if you can't answer my direct question -- are you saying..." Wallace tried to ask again before getting cut off.
"The answer to your question is, we'll see whether there's a vacancy in 2020," the Majority Leader quipped.
"But your 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 observed.
"What I'm telling you is, the history is you have to go back to 1880 to find the last time a Senate control by a party different from the president filled a vacancy on the Supreme Court that was created in the middle of a presidential election," McConnell insisted.
