Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden’s misstep claiming Senate Republicans’ push to confirm President Trump’s Supreme Court pick Amy Coney Barrett is unconstitutional reveals cracks in his campaign’s message discipline.
For a candidate with a well-earned reputation for putting his foot in his mouth, Biden has been remarkably disciplined most of the 2020 general election season — helped in part because he’s spent most of it at home in Delaware amid the coronavirus pandemic.
Save for his charged exchange with Breakfast Club radio show host Charlamagne Tha God, in which he said African American voters considering casting a ballot for Trump “ain’t black,” Barack Obama’s two-term vice president and Delaware’s 36-year senator has made it to the closing three weeks of his bid without any other major mishaps.
That is, until this weekend.
Biden has been hounded since Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s death regarding whether he supports expanding or “packing” the bench to counteract the 6-3 conservative bent that will result after Barrett’s likely confirmation. He has repeatedly described the line of inquiry as a distraction from the Senate Republicans’ rushed effort to elevate Barrett before the Nov. 3 election despite denying Obama the same opportunity in 2016.
His frustrations were evident during a KTNV interview Friday, telling the Las Vegas ABC-affiliate TV station that the public didn’t deserve to know his position on the issue before Election Day.
“No, they don’t,” Biden said of voters before pivoting to Trump. “I’m not going to play his game. He’d love me to talk about — and, and I’ve already said something on packing the court. But he’d love that to be the discussion.”
Then, on Saturday, he falsely called the Senate Republicans’ process for Barrett unconstitutional.
“The only court-packing is going on right now. It’s going on with the Republicans,” Biden said. “It’s not constitutional what they’re doing. We should be focused on what’s happening right now.”
And Biden campaign spokeswoman Kate Bedingfield struggled to defend Biden’s offhand comments on CNN Sunday.
“His point is that the people have an opportunity to weigh in on this constitutional process through their vote. And we are now in the midst of the election. Millions of people have already cast their votes,” she said.
Republican strategist Duf Sundheim didn’t think Biden’s court-packing statements were due to a lack of discipline. Instead, he believed it was a Democratic blind spot.
“We get so caught up in, ‘What does it mean for the campaign?’ I’m really deeply concerned what it means for our country and for the Constitution,” he said. “The lines are getting blurred between the different branches.”
Sundheim was unsure whether Biden could keep avoiding the issue because it will continue to have currency as long as Barrett’s hearings and votes, as well as the Nov. 10 start date for a Supreme Court case questioning Obamacare’s constitutionality, are in news headlines.
“I think it’s their greatest vulnerability, and to be saying that it’s unconstitutional, it’s just over the top,” he said. “Just give a generic answer that makes it go away. It’s just such an unforced error, and I think to so many people it really matters.”
The Biden campaign has handled the court-packing issue “poorly,” but it was more important to conservatives like Sundheim rather than liberals, according to Rutgers University history and journalism professor David Greenberg.
“There’s little evidence that it’s going to matter much to most swing voters,” he said. “The real question for Biden, I think, is whether he can use the last three weeks to make people more aware of his economic agenda.”
For Greenberg, Biden ought to concentrate on the economy since it was rare for a challenger “to win the presidency simply on opposition to the incumbent.”
“The last time it happened was in 1980,” he said. “If Biden wants to win the remaining undecided voters, he needs to make sure his economic message gets heard.”
Former California Democratic Party adviser Bob Mulholland agreed, suggesting Biden should bring up Trump’s mismanagement of the coronavirus outbreak too.
“Biden is sticking to a political rule — stick to the issue that adds votes — COVID-19, which reminds Americans of Trump’s incompetence,” he said. “When driving on a major highway, do not take the wrong exit, like ‘Packing the Court — Exit 13, one mile.'”
Biden and Trump were to meet for their second debate, a town hall-style event, on Thursday. But Trump’s coronavirus diagnosis and refusal to take part in a virtual format provided Biden with a reason to pull out of a head-to-head matchup, opting instead to participate in a town hall convened by ABC.
