Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley said he would not hold hearings for a Supreme Court nominee in the final year of President Donald Trump’s term in office in an interview with Fox News’ Martha MacCallum on Tuesday night.

Grassley said he made that decision when Senate Republicans refused to hold hearings for President Barack Obama’s Supreme Court nominee Merrick Garland following the death of Justice Antonin Scalia because it was within a year of the next presidential election.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, however, said on Fox News Sunday that he would consider holding hearings if a vacancy opens up.

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MacCallum asked, “Merrick Garland is someone that a lot of people point to as the beginning of the most recent poisoning of this process. If there is an opening on the court in the election year, in 2020, do you believe that the Senate should take up a nomination during that period?”

“If I’m chairman, they won’t take it up, no, because I pledged that in 2016, that if the ball is the same as it is — now if someone else is chairman of the committee, they’ll have to decide for themselves. But that’s a decision I made a long time ago,” Grassley stated.

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