Refusing to answer whether or not he supports packing the Supreme Court, Joe Biden has set off alarms by taking things even further and saying voters “don’t deserve” to know his position on the issue.
Biden and his running mate, Sen. Kamala Harris (D-California), have thus far dodged the question of whether they would pack the Supreme Court with more extra justices if Amy Coney Barrett is confirmed before November’s election.
Told in Las Vegas by a local reporter that his position on court packing, which he opposed during the Democratic Party’s presidential primary, is the “number one thing” viewers ask about, Biden dismissed the claim, saying, “Well you’ve been asked by the viewers who are probably Republicans who don’t want me continuing to talk about what they’re doing to the court right now.”
“Well, sir don’t the voters deserve to know…?” reporter Ross DiMattei asked.
“No they don’t deserve,” Biden said, then tearing into President Donald Trump without naming him. “I’m not gonna play his game, he’d love me to talk about, and I’ve already said something on court packing, he’d love that to be the discussion instead of what he’s doing now.”
“Well sir, don’t the voters deserve to know—“ “No, they don’t deserve” to know. So not only is the Left not answering whether they will pack the courts, their standard-bearer thinks you *don’t deserve* to know whether they will. pic.twitter.com/cEj0dV5p6I
Biden turning the court packing question into a matter of voters not “deserving” to know his position has raised alarm with critics.
“Strange theory of how elections are supposed to work,” author and Georgetown law professor Randy Barnett tweeted in reaction.
Remarkable. Biden says voters don’t deserve to know if he’d overthrow one of the three branches of government.With the ACB hearings coming up this week, the court packing controversy will get even worse for Biden, who REFUSES to answer. https://t.co/Tgmi7JR37V
Here’s Biden literally saying the American voters “don’t deserve” to know if he’ll pack the Supreme Court. https://t.co/HPJi3j2Kmo
wow… the voters dont deserve to know? https://t.co/ppMWsdtOlP
Court packing has become a more popular idea among Democrats in the wake of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s death and the president’s insistence on filling her seat before the election. Biden himself waved off the notion of packing the Supreme Court while running for the Democratic Party’s presidential nomination, saying “we’ll live to rue that day” if it were ever done.
He has more recently, however, refused to take a position on the issue, previously stating he would not comment on the matter until after the election.
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