Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said on Fox News Sunday that, historically speaking, it’s standard practice not to confirm a Supreme Court nomination made by a President in a presidential election year if the Senate is controlled by the opposing party, explaining that this shows the GOP’s obstruction of the Merrick Garland nomination was usual and not extraordinary.

On Face the Nation, host John Dickerson took him to task over that claim.

Following some discussion about various legislation, McConnell disputed the idea that the Senate during the Trump administration has been overly partisan or that it might be in a dire place after the confirmation hearings. “So the notion that the Senate is somehow broken over this is simply inaccurate,” he said.

Dickerson responded — around the 5 minute mark — that “Democrats are pointing not only to the way this was handled but in the history of partisanship on the Supreme Court, your decision to block Merrick Garland is something they see as-as having kicked off a new stage in the partisanship associated with Supreme Court nominees.”

Repeating what he’d said earlier to Fox’s Chris Wallace, McConnell argued that there was nothing new about the blocking of Garland. “You have to go back to 1880 to find the last time a Senate controlled by a different party from the president confirmed a Supreme Court justice to a vacancy created in the middle of a presidential election,” he said. He also cited the so-called “Biden Rule”, in which Joe Biden as a Senator promised to block GOP nominees on that basis.

“Mr. Leader I don’t think that’s right,” said Dickerson. “In 1956 Eisenhower nominated Brennan the- the 84th Congress was a Democrat controlled and also on the Biden rule, Joe Biden was talking in the abstract. There was no nominee, no nominee was blocked and he said to not have the nomination come up before the election, but that it could come up after the election.” He said Democrats therefore conclude McConnell is making up “new rules.”

McConnell reacted angrily. “Yeah, well that’s not exactly- that- that’s not at all what happened, John,” he said. “You’re- you’re completely misconstruing what happened. What I gave you is the history of this. I know the history of this. I’ve spent a lot of time on this throughout my career. What I did was entirely consistent with what the history of the Senate’s been in that situation going back to 1880.”

It became a contentious exchange after that.

JOHN DICKERSON: Well I- I think the 1956 example and also in 1968 later in the election cycle when a Democratic president put somebody forward, the Republican leader worked with him to get that person a hearing and get him towards the Supreme Court which is not something that you did, a vote at the time– SEN. MCCONNELL: –Then there was a Democrat- then there was a Democrat in the White House and a Democratic Senate. JOHN DICKERSON: But the Republican leader– SEN. MCCONNELL: –You are not– JOHN DICKERSON: –at the time tried to help– SEN. MCCONNELL: –you are not listening to me, John.– JOHN DICKERSON: –the Democratic president. SEN. MCCONNELL: John you are not listening to me. The history is- is exactly as I told you. JOHN DICKERSON: Well we have- we have a disagreement about the history, but I greatly appreciate– SEN. MCCONNELL: –Yeah, we do. We certainly do– JOHN DICKERSON: –greatly appreciate you being with us here today. Mr. Leader, thanks so much.

Watch above, courtesy of CBS.

[Featured image via screengrab]

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