Joe Biden Promises Answer on Court Packing if GOP Confirms Barrett

Former Vice President Joe Biden is promising to unveil his position on packing the Supreme Court if the GOP confirms Amy Coney Barrett.

The Democrat nominee, who has refused to take a position on court packing since Ruth Bader Ginsburg passed last month, was asked during an ABC town hall whether he would support the initiative if elected in November. Biden began his response by asserting there were other ways to change the makeup of the Court without adding new justices, but conceded that he was not in favor of court packing, as it was likely to lead to a situation where both parties expand the court at every opportunity.

“I have not been a fan of court packing because then it just generates a [scenario] where whoever wins, it just keeps moving in a way which is going to be unmanageable,” the former vice president said.

When pressed on the topic, Biden repeated that he was “not a fan” of court packing, but clarified that his stance on the issue would ultimately be decided by the manner in which Republicans handled themselves in the Barrett hearings.

“I’m not a fan, [but] it depends on how this turns out, not how [Donald Trump] wins, but how it’s handled,” the former vice president said. “But, there’s a number of things that are going to be coming up and there will be a lot of discussion about other alternatives, as well.”

The former vice president added that one of the things he would be looking for was if there was “actually real, live debate on the floor” of the United States Senate regarding Barrett’s qualifications for the court.

“It depends on how much they rush this,” Biden said. “Here you’ve got a lot of people not being able to pay their mortgage, not being able to put food on the table, not being able to keep their businesses open … as a consequence of COVID, and [Congress] has no time to deal with that, but they have time to rush this through.”

When asked if voters deserved a clear answer before the election, the former vice president answered.

“They do have a right to know where I stand and they’ll have a right to know where I stand before they vote,” Biden said, adding, though, that it would still depend on how Republicans “handled this.”