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Of course, the President is free to nominate someone and send it to the Senate for its consent. If anyone is suggesting he doesn't have that authority, then they're wrong.
But what the Senate does with it after they receive it is up to the Senate.
If they say "we choose not to bring this up because it's an election year and this is a 5-4 court and we're replacing a conservative with a liberal" the President has no actual authority to prevent that.
If they say "we choose not to bring this up because the average temperature in Singapore in October is 80 degrees fahrenheit" the President has no actual authority to prevent that either.
(In other words, the reason -- actual or pretext -- is immaterial for anything other than the politics of it.)