WASHINGTON — The Senate majority leader says if there's a vacancy on the Supreme Court during next year's election cycle, the Republican-controlled Senate would likely confirm a nominee selected by President Donald Trump.

In an appearance Tuesday in Paducah, Kentucky, Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., told a questioner that if a Supreme Court justice died next year, creating a vacancy on the nine-member court, "Oh, we'd fill it."

McConnell's comments marked a reversal from his stance three years ago, during President Barack Obama's final year in office, when he orchestrated a blockade of Obama's choice of Merrick Garland, a federal appeals court judge, after Justice Antonin Scalia's death. McConnell said then that the choice should be left to voters in an election year.

McConnell's change of heart drew attacks from Democrats still smarting from his success in cementing the high court's conservative majority. Scalia's vacancy went to conservative Neil Gorsuch while swing vote Anthony Kennedy, who retired, was replaced by Brett Kavanaugh after an acrimonious brawl last year.

Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer of New York called McConnell a "hypocrite" and tweeted that his colleague "lives for GOP judges because he knows the GOP agenda is so radical & unpopular they can only achieve it in courts."

Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., the fifth-ranking House Democrat, called McConnell "a shameless individual" and accused him of "stealing a Supreme Court seat that Barack Obama had the right to present to the American people."

McConnell spokesman David Popp said McConnell was being consistent because he took care in 2016 to say that vacancies occurring when the White House and Senate are held by different parties should be held up. Republicans now control the Senate and White House.

There is no announced vacancy, and no justice has made moves indicating they're about to leave, but there's internet chatter that Justice Clarence Thomas would consider retirement if his seat could be filled by a Trump-named younger conservative.

In Paducah, McConnell said confirming judges is the best way to have "a long-lasting positive impact on the country. That's the most important thing we've done in the country, which cannot be undone."