Erin Kelly

USA TODAY

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said Tuesday that Democrats should allow an up-or-down vote on President Trump's Supreme Court nominee, even if they oppose the president's choice.

McConnell said that's only fair because Republicans didn't block votes on Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg or Stephen Breyer — President Clinton's picks for the high court — or on Sonia Sotomayor or Elena Kagan, who were President Obama's choices.

"What I would expect from our Democratic friends is that the nominee be handled similarly to Clinton's and Obama's first two nominees in their first terms," McConnell told reporters. "They were given up-or-down votes."

Republicans did refuse to even hold a hearing on Merrick Garland, Obama's nominee to replace the late Justice Antonin Scalia, who died in February. McConnell said that was different because nominees have rarely been confirmed in the middle of a presidential election year.

"This is the beginning of a four-year term (for Trump), not the middle of a presidential election," he said. "So let's talk about apples and apples, and not apples and oranges."

McConnell acknowledged that Democrats will most likely force a procedural vote on whether to proceed to an up-or-down vote on Trump's nominee. It takes 60 votes to clear the procedural hurdle. There are 52 Republicans in the Senate, meaning that McConnell will have to attract at least eight Democrats who believe the nominee deserves a vote.

Sen. Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., has already said he will force the procedural vote, called cloture, on any nominee who is not Garland. Merkley and other liberals say that Republicans "stole" the seat from Obama by refusing to even consider Garland.

Democrats who vowed to oppose Trump's nominee before Trump has even announced his choice are engaging in "an unprecedented level of obstruction," said Sen. Cory Gardner, R-Colo., chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee.

"It's hard to believe you have to oppose the nominee before you know the nominee," Gardner said.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said he would wait to find out who the nominee is before making any comment about what Democrats plan to do.

"We want a mainstream nominee that gets bipartisan support," Schumer told reporters. "We hope we'll get that tonight. We'll see."

He also made it clear that he does not believe Republicans should use the "nuclear option," a change in Senate rules that would essentially prevent Democrats from using a filibuster to block Trump's high court nominee.

Schumer said Democrats were careful to exempt Supreme Court nominees when they invoked the nuclear option in 2013 to cover all other nominees for the federal judiciary and the president's Cabinet. The rule change meant that Democrats could confirm non-Supreme Court nominees with a simple majority of 51 votes instead of the 60-vote super-majority needed for most major action.

"We thought this (a Supreme Court justice) was such an important position that it ought to be bipartisan," Schumer said.

Sen. Chris Coons, D-Del., who serves on the Judiciary Committee that will hold confirmation hearings for Trump's nominee, issued a statement Tuesday promising to give the nominee "open-minded and fair consideration as long as Senate Republicans ensure a thorough and fair process."

"That includes sufficient time to review the nominee’s record, access to complete disclosures, and the opportunity to question the nominee and outside witnesses as part of an extensive and thorough confirmation hearing," Coons said. "The American people deserve to hear directly from the nominee."

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