Mitch McConnell Promises To Fill Election Year Supreme Court Vacancy After Denying Obama The Same Thing

The New York Times reports:



Democrats accused Mitch McConnell, the Senate majority leader, of hypocrisy on Tuesday after he said Republicans would confirm a justice to the Supreme Court if a seat opened up amid the election campaign in 2020, even after denying President Barack Obama a similar opportunity in 2016.

The senator made the remarks at a Chamber of Commerce event in Paducah, Ky., after an audience member asked what Senate Republicans would do if a Supreme Court justice died next year. “Oh, we’d fill it,” he responded with a grin, prompting laughter from the audience.

When Mr. McConnell denied Judge Merrick B. Garland, Mr. Obama’s choice to fill a Supreme Court vacancy, a hearing in 2016, the senator cited election-year “tradition” going back to 1880 in keeping the seat open until a new president could be inaugurated.