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Biden Snaps Over Supreme Court Packing Question, Says Voters Don't Deserve to Know His Stance


Former vice president and Democratic nominee Joe Biden insisted on Friday that voters don't deserve to know whether he would attempt to pack the Supreme Court if he wins the 2020 presidential election and if SCOTUS nominee Amy Coney Barrett is confirmed.


What are the details?

During a Friday stop in Las Vegas, Nevada, Biden snapped at a reporter who asked about his stance on court-packing.


KTNV-TV Ross DiMattei asked Biden about court-packing — which Biden said he opposed during the Democratic primary, and before Coney Barrett's nomination — saying, "This is the number one thing that I've been asked about from viewers in the past couple of days."

Biden interrupted, "Well you've been asked by the viewers who are probably Republicans, who don't want me continuing to talk about what they're doing to the court right now."

The reporter continued, "Well, sir, don't the voters deserve to know?"


A clearly irritated Biden responded, "No, they don't. ... I'm not gonna play his game, he'd love me to talk about, and I've already said something on court-packing, he'd love that to be the discussion instead of what he's doing now. He's about to make a pick in the middle of an election, first time it's ever been done, first time in history it's ever been done."


On Thursday, he issued a similar statement, saying that the public would know his position on court-packing the day after the 2020 presidential election.


"You will know my opinion on court-packing when the election is over," Biden told reporters at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport on Thursday. "The moment I answer that question, the headline in every one of your papers will be about that rather than focusing on what's happening now. This election has begun. There's never been a court appointment once the election has begun."


'We'll live to rue that day'

In 2019, Biden told Iowa Starting Line that he was opposed to the idea of court-packing.

"No," he said at the time, "I'm not prepared to go on and try to pack the court, because we'll live to rue that day."


You can read more about Biden's Nevada campaign stop here.



Author: Sarah Taylor

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