If President Joe Biden sits down with potential Supreme Court nominees in Delaware or Camp David, the public may not know.
While visitor logs at the White House disclose who is stopping by and when, the logs at Biden’s Delaware homes are not public nor are the logs at Camp David, the Maryland retreat where the president often travels on weekends.
Biden’s press secretary declined Monday to share details of the closely guarded process, including how Biden will interview or nominate potential candidates vying for a seat on the bench and whether these meetings are taking place in Delaware or Maryland. “There is, of course, a vetting process that takes place. We have not outlined that in detail from here,” Jen Psaki said.
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Asked whether the White House would disclose Biden’s meetings about the court seat in Delaware, where the president was last weekend, Psaki demurred.
The White House would seek “to be as transparent as possible” as Biden makes his decision, she told reporters. “As you know, what the president’s been focused on over the course of the last several days is reviewing and consulting with internal team members on a large — a group of qualified nominees.“
Democratic allies have been bending the White House’s ear over a Supreme Court prospect for months, with Democratic House Majority Whip Jim Clyburn days into the Biden presidency making the case to Vice President Kamala Harris in her West Wing office, according to an interview with the New York Times. Visitor logs reviewed by the Washington Examiner show a visit by Clyburn on Feb. 5.
Psaki has defended the nonrelease of visitor logs from Biden’s homes in Delaware before, where tallies show the president spent more than a quarter of his first year in office in the state.
Biden has said Harris will play a “central” role in the process, along with chief of staff Ron Klain, White House counsel Dana Remus, senior adviser Cedric Richmond, and other White House aides. The president has also tapped three outside advisers to help usher the eventual pick through the nomination and confirmation process for the court.
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The president last week called and met with Senate leaders in both parties about filling the seat “as a part of the advice and consent part of the role of picking a nominee,“ Psaki said.
