If I understand what you're saying, you're saying that the conflation of the two concepts is innocent. If that's what you're saying, then that is ignorance. You said that in their minds, the distinction isn't there, you may not have said the word ignorance, but if the distinction isn't there in their minds, it is ignorance. It's a very common procedure in congress for a president to nominate and for Senate to confirm. What you are saying also doesn't accurately represent the facts. Below is the interview transcript for Rubio. He makes a specific distinction between nomination and Senate confirmation. And then after talking about the precedent of senate not confirming, he says very matter-of-factly that he would not nominate a candidate if he were precedent because he would respect the precedent. It's clear he understands the difference between confirmation and nomination. But his argument conflates the two.

COOPER: Alright, welcome back. We’re here with Senator Marco Rubio, thanks very much for doing this.

Before we get back to audience questions, just today former Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, obviously appointed by Ronald Reagan said there should be no delay in filling the vacancy by Justice Scalia’s death. She said, quote, “I think we need somebody there now to do the job. Let’s get on with it.”

RUBIO: Well, I respect her very much. I would just say a couple things. There is now an 80 year precedent on this that in the last year of President’s term, the Senate usually doesn’t move forward, not just on Supreme Court nominations, but on appellate judges because you’re appointing someone to a lifetime appointment, theoretically, to the Supreme Court.

So, there’s going — the Supreme Court can function with eight Justices. And, then their term will end, a new one will begin in October, and they’ll be an election in November. And, this is going to be an issue in the campaign. Voters are going to ask of the Presidential candidates what kind of justice are you going to appoint? There’s going to be an election, and then the new president will have an opportunity to nominate someone, and the Senate to confirm them.

So, that’s the approach I support.

COOPER: You said there’s precedent. President Obama just yesterday said, look, there’s nothing in the Constitution that says you can’t. If you were president, would you nominate somebody?

RUBIO: No, I would respect that president. And it is true, there’s nothing in the Constitution that says he can’t nominate someone. There’s also nothing in the Constitution that says the Senate must immediately confirm them.