Former Vice President Joe Biden refused to answer a question in an interview with Cincinnati’s WKRC Local 12 on Monday about whether he would expand the Supreme Court and fill it with liberal justices.
Biden said that he is “not a fan” of court-packing — but he appeared to confuse the definition of the term, perhaps deliberately.
Democrats have recently tried to deflect the question by claiming that President Donald Trump is already “packing” the court by nominating conservatives.
Biden spoke in an interview with Kyle Inskeep, who asked him specifically about “expanding” the Court.
Inskeep: 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 your position on possibly expanding the Court before they cast their ballot?
BidenWell, look — before they — what I want to spend the focus on, is I respectfully, suggest, is what — the packing — court-packing is going on now, never before when an 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 to 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. I’ve already spoken on — I’m not a fan of court-packing, but I’m not — I don’t want to get off on that whole issue. I want to keep focused. The president 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.
As Henry Olsen noted recently in the Washington Post, Biden had opposed court-packing in 2019, but has been reluctant to reiterate that position as more leading Democrats have publicly supported the idea as a way of overcoming President Donald Trump’s judicial picks, and the nominal conservative majority on the Supreme Court.
Last week, Biden even said that voters did not deserve to know his stance on packing the Court before they cast their votes in the presidential election.
Court-packing was rejected — by Democrats — the last time it was suggested, by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in the 1930s.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). His newest e-book is The Trumpian Virtues: The Lessons and Legacy of Donald Trump’s Presidency. His recent book, RED NOVEMBER, tells the story of the 2020 Democratic presidential primary from a conservative perspective. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.