Republicans are desperately trying to convince everyone that what they did to Merrick Garland was totally normal.On Sunday, Mitch McConnell pathetically defended his party s refusal to hold a confirmation hearing for President Obama s Supreme Court nominee by repeating the claim that it s Senate  tradition  to not confirm nominees during an election year. He also made the childish claim that Republicans did it because Democrats would have done it, even though Democrats have never done such a thing.What Republicans did to Merrick Garland was unprecedented and a total disgrace of the Constitution.But Orrin Hatch picked up where McConnell left off by using the same pathetic defense during an interview on CNN Monday.After being asked about what Republicans will do if Democrats block Trump s Supreme Court nominee Neil Gorsuch, Hatch whined and accused Democrats of  politicizing  the confirmation process  while pretending that his own party didn t politicize it throughout 2016 when they refused to even grant Garland a hearing. They re politicizing this whole process,  Hatch said.  This is a guy who is a mainstream conservative, which they hate, they don t like that. And of course, they are still upset about my other friend, Merrick Garland. But the Republicans had every right to delay that within a presidential year. CNN host John Berman called out Hatch s hypocrisy. But they look at you and say that s a double standard,  Berman responded.  You call Judge Gorsuch one of the most qualified judges ever to be nominated. Almost everyone said the same thing about Merrick Garland, including you. Indeed, in 2010, Hatch referred to Garland as a  consensus nominee  and said there is  no question  that he would be easily confirmed to the high court if nominated. Garland even complained in support of Garland in 2016 by whining about President Obama s choice before Garland was chosen. The president told me several times he s going to name a moderate [to fill the court vacancy], but I don t believe him. [Obama] could easily name Merrick Garland, who is a fine man. He probably won t do that because this appointment is about the election. So I m pretty sure he ll name someone the [liberal Democratic base] wants. President Obama made Hatch choke on those words by picking Garland. So there seems to be a double standard where you re saying, it was alright last year when we for political reasons halted the nomination of Merrick Garland,  Berman continued.  But it s not okay this year when Democrats try to halt the nomination of Judge Gorsuch. Hatch responded to Berman by lashing out with a desperate defense of how Republicans behaved in 2016 towards Garland. I ll just tell you straight up, that s total B.S.,  Hatch said.  I can t go back in time and show you any case where in a presidential election year they allowed a Supreme Court justice to be nominated unless both sides agreed. And both sides didn t agree. It was every right of [Majority Leader Mitch McConnell] and Senate Republicans to say we re not going to do this in a presidential year. And at that time, keep in mind, it looked as though Hillary was a sure winner and we would have gotten an even more liberal judge than that one. But that was a stand on principle. Not some new barbaric thing that some have tried to make it. Here s the video via YouTube:Let s make something clear. What Hatch and his fellow Republicans in the Senate did to Merrick Garland was totally unprecedented. They not only rejected Garland after previously praising him, they even refused to grant him a confirmation hearing. That has never happened. Republicans were so unbelievably partisan that Antonin Scalia s body was not even cold yet when they declared that they would refuse to confirm any nominee picked by President Obama. And that brings us yet again to the Republican claim that it s  tradition  for the Senate to not confirm Supreme Court nominees during an election year.That s complete bullshit. As it turns out, the last one occurred only 29 years ago when the Senate confirmed Justice Anthony Kennedy in 1988 during Ronald Reagan s last year in office.It also happened in 1956 when Dwight Eisenhower nominated William Brennan. The Senate confirmed him despite it being an election year.In 1940, also an election year, Franklin Roosevelt nominated Frank Murphy to the Supreme Court and the Senate confirmed him.So contrary to Republican claims, the tradition is that nominees can be and are confirmed despite whether it s an election year or not.That means Hatch is lying to cover his ass because he knows he and his fellow Republicans are complete hypocrites and now that their hypocrisy is coming back to bite them on the ass they want to play the victim.Featured image via screenshot