Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden is avoiding a critical policy question on the Supreme Court because he is “focused” on his goal of winning the election, according to his deputy campaign manager.
During an interview with CNN host John Berman on Wednesday morning, Kate Bedingfield, who is also the communications director for the Biden campaign, said Republicans in Congress want to create a “divisive conversation” on whether Biden supports expanding the number of justices on the Supreme Court, saying the subject is a “distraction” from “winning this election.”
“Why don’t they deserve a yes-no answer about whether or not the vice president would support adding to the number of Supreme Court justices?” Berman asked regarding Biden’s transparency on the issue with voters.
“The vice president has addressed this a number of times, John. … He has said this is the conversation that the political press wants to have. This is the conversation that, you know, Republicans on Capitol Hill want to have. They want to try to have a divisive conversation that assumes that we’re not going to rally people, for example, to prevent the nomination of Amy Coney Barrett from going through,” Bedingfield responded. “He’s not going to make an argument that assumes that the will of the people is not going to be heard.”
Senate Republicans are pushing to confirm President Trump’s Supreme Court nominee before Election Day. Republicans control 53 seats in the Senate and would not have room for more than three defections within the party should a nominee be voted on and all Democrats resist the president’s selection. Vice President Mike Pence has the power to break a tied vote.
Democrats, including Biden, have demanded that Trump wait until there is a winner in the November election. Some have even suggested that if Republicans push through a nominee and the Democrats take control of Congress in November, they will vote to expand the Supreme Court or end the legislative filibuster.
“He’s not interested in having a conversation that’s about a distraction,” Bedingfield said. “He’s focused on the goal at hand, which is turning out on Nov. 3, winning this election, a change of leadership in the White House, bringing along additional Senate seats and congressional seats, and getting our politics back to a place where we can actually work together to get this done.”
[Related: Public opposes packing Supreme Court with liberal judges, Washington Examiner/YouGov poll finds]
In the first presidential debate last week, just before Trump tested positive for the coronavirus, Biden declined to answer a question regarding his position on packing the court.
“Whatever position I take on that, that’ll become the issue. The issue is the American people should speak,” Biden said. When the president repeatedly attempted to provoke a response from Biden on the question, Biden replied, “Will you just up, man?”
A new Washington Examiner/YouGov poll released Wednesday found that court-packing is a widely unpopular issue among the public, only attracting support from 1 out of 3 voters.
