Senate Republican leaders on Wednesday quickly laid out the game plan for confirming a replacement for retiring Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy, wasting no time in stating they intended to confirm a new justice before the fall elections and flatly claiming there was literally nothing Democrats could do to delay that.

“The Senate stands ready to fulfill its constitutional role by offering advice and consent on President Trump’s nominee to fill this vacancy. We will vote to confirm Justice Kennedy’s successor this fall,” Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said on the floor just minutes after the news of Kennedy’s retirement broke.

The swiftness of the announcement of the vote timing called to mind McConnell’s decision shortly after the death of Justice Antonin Scalia in February 2016 that it did not matter whom President Barack Obama nominated, no hearings would take place until Obama’s successor was in office. Obama nominated Merrick G. Garland anyway, who never got a hearing. Donald Trump won the election, and the next year he nominated Neil Gorsuch, whom the Senate confirmed after nixing the last of any significant procedural hurdles senators could use to delay or halt a judicial nominee.

Watch: McConnell Vows Vote on Kennedy Successor ‘This Fall’