On Fox News, Trump defended the GOP plan to bring a SCOTUS nominee up for a hearing so close to an election

In a “Fox & Friends” interview Monday, President Trump defended the Republican plan to nominate and hold hearings for a Supreme Court justice so close to an election. “When you have the Senate, when you have the votes," he said, "you can sort of do what you want as long as you have it.”

Video Transcript

- All right, Mr. President, my last thing on this is people are listening right now and saying, "Wait a second. President Obama had Merrick Garland nominated nine months before his last day in office, before the election." And Republicans said it's just too-- it's too close to an election.

And now they're saying Republicans are hypocrites, saying "We're going to push this through," you included. Is there a difference in your mind? Do you understand where they're coming from?

DONALD TRUMP: So I think Merrick Garland is an outstanding judge. I think he's outstanding, and I think he's an outstanding intellect. He is liberal. That's OK.

But the only problem was-- and this is up to the Senate-- the only problem was President Obama did not have the Senate. I can go a step further. President Obama didn't get a lot of judges, and I just told you 142 judges. And he didn't get a lot of judges though. Because you know why? He didn't have the Senate.

So again, that's an election of a different kind. We have the Senate. And the Senate didn't want to do that, and Mitch didn't want to do that. So there's a difference. When you have the Senate, when you have the votes, you can sort of do what you want as long as you have it. So now we have the presidency, and we have the Senate. And we have every right to do it, and we have plenty of time.