There you have it. If Donald Trump departs from his list of future Supreme Court nominees, Donald Trump has authorized Mitch McConnell and Senate Republicans to block that nominee and enforce the list. And I have no doubt that they would, because not only have they shown the collective spine to do so in the course of the Garland debate, here they have irrefutable evidence of the potential president’s consent to a future blockade if necessary.

Trump is thus now effectively stopped from effectively arguing against the Senate’s refusal to confirm an unacceptable nominee.

Now Ben and others can conjure up all sorts of hypotheticals wherein Trump backtracks or McConnell and the Senate GOP caves. But there is no way any additional proof can be brought forward on the subject. Clinging to objections that the Supreme Court argument has no weight now is in fact proof that “We can’t trust him” was cover all along to avoid the discomfort of counting the cost of helping to defeat Trump and elect Clinton.

There can be no more assurance to be given than has been given, and a lot has been given. The court is definitely in the balance and the #NeverTrumpers are saying they don’t care about that, or more accurately, that they fear a President Trump more than they do a wildly liberal Supreme Court and all that such a court means for the originalist project.