Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., was correct when he said Sunday a Supreme Court nominee had not been appointed during a presidential election year when the White House and Congress were controlled by opposing parties in more than a century, according to CBS News' John Dickerson.

McConnell and Dickerson clashed Sunday during a segment on the network's "Face the Nation" program when the anchor pressed the Kentucky Republican on whether he was to blame for an increasingly partisan approach to filling vacancies on the country's highest court.

"The @senatemajldr &I had a disagreement about 1956. He said, since 1880, no SCOTUS nominee had been named & confirmed in an election year when the president and Congress were in opposite parties. I said in 1956 Ike (R) nominated Brennan. Democrats controlled the Senate," Dickerson tweeted after the episode aired, referring to former President Dwight Eisenhower.

"But Brennan was a recess apointment [sic] in ‘56 not confirmed by Democrats ‘till ‘57. McConnell: correct! But: recess appointment & confirmations in election years undermine idea it was Sen. norm justices coldn’t [sic] be confirmed b/c voters had to have their say— the Garland rationale," Dickerson posted.


Merrick Garland, who is chief judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, was former President Barack Obama's Supreme Court pick in 2016, but was denied a chance for confirmation because McConnell refused to hold a vote regarding his candidacy.

Brett Kavanaugh was sworn in Saturday evening as the 114th Supreme Court justice following a controversial confirmation process.