South Carolina Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham told “Fox News Sunday” that he is “hell-bent” on ensuring that the next Supreme Court vacancy — whether it is ailing Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s seat or otherwise — is filled by a conservative, regardless of what outrage follows from the left.

Graham, the new chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, emphasized that former Democratic Sen. Majority Leader Harry Reid eliminated the Senate filibuster for federal appellate judicial nominees in 2013. Republicans later retaliated by eliminating the filibuster for Supreme Court appointments, meaning that a simple majority — rather than a 60-vote supermajority — is sufficient to confirm new Supreme Court nominees.

“My Democratic colleagues felt when they were in charge we should confirm judges by a majority vote,” Graham told Fox News’ Chris Wallace. “They changed the rules to accommodate President Obama. They tried to stack the court. They never thought [Hillary] Clinton would lose. So what you’re gonna have is Harry Reid’s and Chuck Schumer’s desire to stack the court on their Democratic watch has come back to haunt them.”

Ginsburg will miss next week’s Supreme sessions and work from home, but her recovery from early-stage lung cancer surgery remains “on track” and no further treatment is needed, the court announced Friday. The 85-year-old’s absence this past week from oral arguments — her first since joining the bench — after her surgery in December sparked speculation about a possible departure and led to low-key planning by the White House for that scenario.

Following the contentious confirmation hearings of now-Associate Justice Brett Kavanaugh, which were marked by a series of lurid, uncorroborated sexual misconduct allegations, Graham asserted that there would be “pushback from the left” regardless of whom Trump nominates.

“If there is an opening, whether it’s Ginsburg or anybody else, I will urge the president to nominate a qualified conservative and hopefully those people will get through – that person will get through,” Graham continued. “And I expect it to be along party lines, and this is what happens when you change the rules. This has come back to bite ‘ em. I predicted it would. And we’ll see. I hope Justice Ginsburg serves for a long time. But if there’s an opening on this court, I’m going to be hell-bent to put a conservative to replace whoever steps down for whatever reason.”

Pressed by Wallace as to whether it was appropriate to nominate a conservative to replace a liberal icon like Ginsburg, Graham again said liberals have only Reid to blame — and he suggested Kavanaugh’s treatment meant that all bets are off.

“They should’ve thought of that before they changed the rules,” Graham responded. “They tried to destroy conservative judges. I voted for [Sonia] Sotomayor and [Elena] Kagan, understanding what I was getting, so this decision by Reid and Schumer may come back to haunt them, but I am dead set on making sure it is a conservative nominee. And elections have consequences. The rules of the Senate were changed not by me, by them, and we had to do it on the Supreme Court because they would not give us any votes to nominate anybody. And Kavanaugh was a fine man, they tried to destroy him. All this is going to come back to haunt them one day.”