Republicans had no principles? Shocker!

September 8, 2016: Vice President Joseph Biden held a press event with Democratic members of Congress on the steps of the U.S. Capitol urging the Senate to avoid setting a "dangerous precedent" in failing to give an up or down vote on Merrick Garland's nomination. The Vice President said, "Do your job in terms of not spreading the dysfunction of the Congress to the Supreme Court of the United States."[39]

Looks like the Senate is going to “do their job”

Democratic vice presidential nominee and Virginia Senator Tim Kaine said, "We will change the Senate rules to uphold the law, that the court will be nine members ... I was in the Senate when the Republicans’ stonewalling around appointments caused Senate Democratic majority to switch the vote threshold on appointments from 60 to 51. And we did it on everything but a Supreme Court justice ... If these guys think they’re going to stonewall the filling of that vacancy or other vacancies, then a Democratic Senate majority will say, ‘We’re not going to let you thwart the law.'

October 24, 2016: In a Talking Points Memo report, Democratic leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) felt that a prospective Democratic majority in the U.S. Senate could review the rules governing confirmation votes of U.S. Supreme Court nominees, "I really do believe that I have set the Senate so when I leave, we’re going to be able to get judges done with a majority. It takes only a simple majority anymore. And, it’s clear to me that if the Republicans try to filibuster another circuit court judge, but especially a Supreme Court justice, I’ve told 'em how and I’ve done it, not just talking about it. I did it in changing the rules of the Senate. It’ll have to be done again ... They mess with the Supreme Court, it'll be changed just like that in my opinion ... So I’ve set that up. I feel very comfortable with that."[21]

This is one huge appeal to hypocrisy.

And the Garland case was a year before the election. This one is a month and a half.