When President Donald Trump chooses someone to fill his second Supreme Court vacancy in 17 months, Senate Democrats will object to holding a vote until after the November midterm elections.

Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said Tuesday following Justice Anthony Kennedy’s retirement announcement that the GOP majority should stick to a standard they set in 2016 by road-blocking Merrick Garland, President Barack Obama's election-year nominee to the high court.

At the time, Majority Leader McConnell said that 'the American people should have a voice in the selection of their next Supreme Court Justice. Therefore, this vacancy should not be filled until we have a new President' – whether it was to be Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump.

Schumer's demand referred to an off-year election when the White House is not up for grabs. Still, he was serving up sauce for the gander on Wednesday.

Scroll down for video

Democratic Minority Leader Chuck Schumer called on Republicans to leave action on a new Supreme Court justice until a new Senate is seated next year, citing Republicans' blockade of Barack Obama's election-year nominee in 2016

Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is in no mood to slow down and expects to fast-track President Donald Trump's nominee

'Our Republican colleagues in the Senate should follow the rule they set in 2016, not to consider a Supreme Court justice in an election year,' he said on the Senate floor.

'Millions of people are just months away from determining the senators who should vote to confirm or reject the president’s nominee, and their voices deserve to be heard now, as Leader McConnell thought they deserved to be heard then,' the New York Democrat added.

'Anything other than that would be the absolute height of hypocrisy.'

Utah Sen. Orrin Hatch, who will retire in January, tweeted a tut-tut to Schumer, saying the 2016 and 2018 elections are a political chasm apart.

'Our Democrat colleagues[’] entire strategy seems to be premised on the assumption that the American people don’t understand the difference between a Presidential election and a midterm election,' Hatch wrote.

'They understand.'

McConnell wrote in 2016 after Obama nominated Merrick Garland that 'the American people should have a voice in the selection of their next Supreme Court Justice. Therefore, this vacancy should not be filled until we have a new President'

On Wednesday, Hawaii Democraitc Sen. Brian Schatz retweeted a chopped-off version of McConnell's 2016 remarks, ignoring the context of a presidential election year

Justice Anthony Kennedy announced his retirement on Wednesday, effective July 31

Utah Republican Sen. Orrin Hatch mocked Democrats for saying Supreme Court hearings and votes should be delayed for an off-year midterm election because they were during a presidential election year

But one Democrat after another insisted Wednesday afternoon that the White House's judicial wheels should stop until eight months from now when a new Congress is seated.

'PLEASE RETWEET IF YOU AGREE,' Hawaii Sen. Brian Schatz tweeted, copying a shortened version of McConnell’s 2016 statement – minus his mention of 'a new President.'

'President Trump should not nominate, and the Senate should not confirm, a Supreme Court justice until the American people have had the opportunity to make their voices heard in November,' Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders said.

'Given the stakes of this Supreme Court seat, which will determine the fate of fundamental constitutional rights, the American people, who will vote in less than 4 months, deserve to have their voice heard,' California Sen. Kamala Harris tweeted. 'We shouldn't vote on confirmation until they have voted at the ballot box.'

President Barack Obama nominated Judge Merrick Garland to the Supreme Court in Marcy 2016 but Republicans in the Senate majority refused to hold hearings – saying either Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton should fill the vacancy left by the death of Justice Antonin Scalia

Maryland Sen. Chris Van Hollen had his own variation on Twitter: 'The McConnell Rule is clear – the American people must have a say in the upcoming election Kennedy's seat is filled.'

California Sen. Dianne Feinstein, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, said in a statement that '[w]e’re now four months away from an election to determine the party that will control the Senate. There should be no consideration of a Supreme Court nominee until the American people have a chance to weigh in.'

Republicans, however, will be itching to hold confirmation hearings and approve the nominee right away.

McConnell, who presides over a tight 51-vote majority, indicated he's ready to move ahead no matter who Trump chooses.

'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,' he said Tuesday.

A parade of Democratic senators insisted Wednesday that 'The McConnell Rule' had been set in 2016 and can't be ignored now

There is ample precedent for confirming Supreme Court nominees during election years.

In 1988, a presidential election year, 51 Senate Democrats confirmed the Reagan-appointed Justice Kennedy, who will step down July 31.

And President Barack Obama nominated Justice Elena Kagan in May 2010. She was confirmed that August, just three months before a midterm election.

Obama's nomination of Merrick Garland to fill the late Justice Antonin Scalia's seat was doomed when all 11 Republican members of the Senate Judiciary Committee told McConnell that they wouldn't hold hearings for any nominee while America had a lame-duck president.

That position was based on the 'Thurmond Rule,' an inconsistently applied principle that dates back to 1968 when Sen. Strom Thurmond scuttled President Lyndon Johnson's appointment of Justice Abe Fortas to be Chief Justice of the United States.

Republicans also cited the 'Biden Rule,' an even more nebulous principle based on a 1992 speech in which then-Sen. Joe Biden declared that President George H.W. Bush shouldn't fill a vacant Supreme Court seat during the summer or fall preceding a presidential election – or at least name a moderate that the Democratic majority would approve.

A gleeful McConnell responded to the orchestrated 2016 maneuver by announcing that there would be no confirmation vote until the next president took office.

The Republican leader's path to officially replacing Kennedy will be made easier because of a decision he made last year when the nomination of Justice Neil Gorsuch was pending.

Until 2013, no judicial nominee could move to a Senate floor vote unless at least 60 senators agreed. That year Democratic Majority Leader Harry Reid invoked what was called 'the nuclear option' – dropping that threshold to just 51.

In 2017, with Republicans back in control, McConnell cited Reid's precedent in fast-tracking Gorsuch.