Following Justice Anthony Kennedy’s retirement announcement, let’s take a moment to remember all the things Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell had to say about then-President Barack Obama nominating a Supreme Court justice two months into an election year. Yes, it was a presidential election year, but since McConnell rested much of his argument on the fabricated "Biden rule," claiming as precedent a completely unrelated scenario, it seems a good deal fairer to equate February 2016 and June 2018.
Mostly, McConnell rested his argument on that “Biden rule” lie—he was doing something so unprecedented he had to go back decades and twist and cherrypick someone’s hypothetical comments to try to justify it. So it seems fair to say that the McConnell doctrine is simply that there should never be a Supreme Court confirmation in an election year. According to McConnell, a vacancy “should not be filled by this lame duck president.” Obama, of course, was not a lame duck—a lame duck president is a president after the election of his successor. What we have now is a president elected with the interference of a hostile nation. Is that a less powerful reason to hold a vacancy? Also:
"The American people are perfectly capable of having their say on this issue, so let's give them a voice. Let's let the American people decide.”
Okay … Let’s talk both about how 2018 is an election year and how, in 2016, the American people did not have their voice as both the presidency and the Senate were “won” by the losers of the popular vote.
Between the popular vote and Russia, no Donald Trump pick should ever be considered a legitimate nominee.