Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden has been repeatedly pressed on where he stands on expanding the Supreme Court.
After suggesting recently he would let the American people know his position on court packing “when the election is over,” the former vice president continued to be asked to share his opinion now.
Biden is now sharing that he is “not a fan” of packing the Supreme Court.
He was asked by Cincinnati’s CBS affiliate WKRC about his position again, where news reporter Kyle Inskeep said, “The Supreme Court is obviously top of mind for voters, especially today. You have made it very clear you don’t want to talk about packing the court until after Election Day, but what about for undecided voters who want to know.”
Biden responded, “What I want them to focus on is, I respectfully suggest, is what the court packing is going on now.”
“Never before when an election has already begun and millions of votes are already cast has it ever been that a Supreme Court nominee was put forward, had never happened before, and one of the reasons is the Constitution implies that the only shot the American people get to determine who will be on the lifetime appointment on the Supreme Court or federal courts is when they pick their senator and their president, because the president names and the Senate advises and consents, that’s the focus,” he continued.
He added:
“I’ve already spoken, I’m not a fan of court packing.”
Biden then suggested that President Donald Trump “would love nothing better than to fight about whether or not I would, in fact, pack the court or not pack the court, et cetera,” before slamming the Senate’s confirmation hearings for Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett.
“The focus is why is he doing what he’s doing now, why now with less than 24 days to go in the election, and the hearing is going to take place and only going to be 10 days or whatever it is before the vote takes place,” Biden said. “That’s the court packing the public should be focused on.”
Over the weekend, Biden called Senate Republicans’ confirmation hearings to push to fill the Supreme Court vacancy before the 2020 presidential election unconstitutional.
Biden’s campaign spokesperson Kate Bedingfield said when asked about Biden’s remarks that it is unconstitutional to fill the vacancy during her CNN interview with Jake Tapper Sunday, “His point is the people have an opportunity to weigh in on this Constitutional process through their vote.”
“And we are now in the midst of the election,” she added. “Millions of people have already cast their votes. And you see that the vast majority of people say that they want the person who wins the election on November 3rd to nominate the justice.”
Tapper pushed back, “That’s a poll. That’s not the Constitution,” before Bedingfield continued to say that the American people should “have their say” by voting for the president and senators.