Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito said he considered retiring this year but decided to stay because he believed he could still contribute to the court, according to a CBS News interview clip released Friday.

Alito, 76, was nominated by President George W. Bush and joined the Supreme Court in 2006. He told CBS News chief legal correspondent Jan Crawford that he expects to revisit the decision each term. He did not give a departure date, leaving open whether President Donald Trump will get another opportunity to nominate a justice.

Crawford asked why Alito remained on the bench despite pressure for him to retire.

“I thought about it,” Alito said.

Asked to confirm that he had considered leaving, Alito explained that retirement had become a question he needed to weigh regularly.

“Well, it’s something I think that somebody at my age has to think about every term,” he said. “But I thought that I could still make a valuable contribution, which is why I became a justice and a judge in the first place. So that was basically it.”

Crawford then asked whether he would reconsider each year.

“Yeah, I think I have to,” Alito replied.

Crawford also asked whether waiting could put his work on the court at risk. Alito said neither his personal circumstances nor the politics surrounding a future vacancy could be predicted with certainty.

“I think it’s too hard to predict,” he said. “It’s too hard to predict how for anybody, and particularly when you reach a certain age, what your situation will be a year from now, two years from now and so forth.”

“And it’s too hard to predict what the political situation will be and what any president might do with respect to a replacement,” he added.

A vacancy during Trump’s presidency would give him a chance to select a fourth Supreme Court justice. During his first term, Trump nominated Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett. All three won Senate confirmation.

In an exclusive interview with Breitbart News in July, Trump said he was “certainly prepared” to fill a possible Supreme Court vacancy. He praised Alito as “one of the greatest of all time” and said he would like to appoint a younger version of him. Trump did not name a potential replacement.

“Well I think, you know, if you listen to people, there are three potential vacancies for various reasons, so I’m certainly prepared,” Trump told Breitbart News. “There are a lot of great people out there who would like to have that position.”