President Donald Trump’s campaign released an ad on Tuesday castigating Joe Biden, the Democrat nominee, for refusing to reveal his stance on packing the Supreme Court.
“For 150 years, the Supreme Court has had nine seats, but the radical left wants to pack the Court with liberal judges, and Joe Biden won’t tell us where he stands,” the ad’s narrator states. The video contains clips of the former vice president refusing to discuss the topic. “Biden doesn’t believe the voters deserve to know.”
Since Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s passing created a vacancy on the Supreme Court last month, Biden has remained vague on court packing. The proposal, which would expand the number of justices on the nation’s highest court to prevent an ascendant conservative majority, has quickly picked up favor among Democrats. Many on the left feel the tactic is their last best hope should Trump and Republicans succeed in confirming Judge Amy Coney Barrett to Ginsburg’s seat and thereby cementing a six-to-three conservative majority on the court.
Biden, however, has remained silent on the issue, even as high-ranking congressional Democrats, most notably House Judiciary Chairman Jerry Nadler (D-NY), have come out in favor of the proposal. Last week during a trip to Arizona, the Democrat nominee refused to answer questions on the topic, telling reporters his position would become clear “when the election is over.”
“Look, I know it’s a great question for you all and I don’t blame you for asking,” he said, “but you know the moment I answer that question, the headline in every one of your papers will be about that.”
The closest that Biden has come to a direct answer regarding the issue was during a campaign swing through Ohio on Monday. While conducting an interview with a local television station in Cincinnati, the former vice president refused to say whether he would support efforts to pack the Court if elected, but he did hint that he was “not a fan” of the idea.
“I’m not a fan of court packing, but … I don’t want to get off on that whole issue,” Biden said. “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.”
Such statements have elicited rebukes from Republicans, including Vice President Mike Pence.
“It is outrageous that a candidate for the highest office in the land won’t tell the American people what he’s going to do with the highest court in the land,” Pence told Breitbart News on Monday.
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