Some Republicans are breaking with McConnell’s position, though. Senator Jeff Flake, a Republican from Arizona, said last week that if the Democrats win the White House in November, they should push Garland through quickly.

“I would rather have a less-liberal nominee like Merrick Garland than a nominee that Hillary Clinton, if she were president, would put forward,” Flake said on Fox News. Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, vying with Clinton for the Democratic nomination, has also said he would nominate a more liberal nominee.

“The principle is the same — whether it’s before the election or after the election — the principle is that the America people are choosing their next president and the next president should choose this Supreme Court nominee,” McConnell said on “Fox News Sunday.”

He said he couldn’t imagine “a Republican majority Senate — even if it were soon to be a minority — would want to confirm a judge that would move the court dramatically to the left. That’s not going to happen.”