McConnell indicates he would block a Democrats' Supreme Court nominee if GOP regains Senate in 2022

Republican Senate leader Mitch McConnell is suggesting he would block a Supreme Court nomination by President Biden if the GOP retakes the Senate after the 2022 elections.

"I think it's highly unlikely – in fact, no, I don't think either party, if it were different from the president, would confirm a Supreme Court nominee in the middle of an election," McConnell on Monday told conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt.

Hewitt asked McConnell if he would block a nomination in 2024 in the same way he blocked Democratic President Barack Obama's nominee, then-Judge Merrick Garland, in 2016 by refusing to hold a hearing in the Senate, as Republicans and Democrats competed to replace the outgoing Obama. 

McConnell argued at the time that it was too close to the next election to vote on a nomination. Garland was nominated Feb. 13, the same day Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia died.

McConnell and Republicans then confirmed Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court in 2020, an election year, sparking criticism from Democrats about appointing a justice during an election year.

McConnell argued that in 2020 the Senate and the White House were held by Republicans, whereas in 2016, the Senate was in GOP control while the White House was occupied by a Democrat in Obama.

There are currently no vacancies on the Supreme Court, but 82-year-old Justice Stephen Breyer has recently received calls to retire, including New York Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who said she was inclined to think Beyer should retire.