that should a vacancy occur during a Presidential election year, then the nomination should be held until after the election.
However Biden really said no such thing. As chair of the Judiciary Committee back in June 1992 when he made his Senate floor speech, he indicated that should a vacancy occur "over the summer" before the election, then the current President might want to consider waiting until after the election to submit a nominee, otherwise he (it was Poppy at the time) should consider a more "moderate" candidate.
This had nothing to do with having a vacancy literally occur in FEBRUARY of the Presidential year and then permitting the GOP to sit on the nomination indefinitely in order to let it die. Nor did it have anything to do with not submitting anyone at all... But he merely recommended the type of nominee submitted which would allow the committee (run by Democrats) to have an easier time reviewing that person and not have to go through all the rancor that occurred with previous nominees. Recall that when he did his speech, it was a year after the contentious confirmation hearings for Clarence Thomas and five years after the failed nomination of Robert Bork (the guy who actually fired Archibald Cox back during Watergate).
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