CINCINNATI — After sidestepping questions about the issue for weeks, Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden said Monday he is “not a fan” of expanding the Supreme Court.

What You Need To Know

  • Joe Biden said Monday he is "not a fan" of expanding the Supreme Court

  • Some Democrats have called for court-packing to counter Republicans pressing forward with the confirmation of Amy Coney Barrett

  • Biden and his running mate, Sen. Kamala Harris, had sidestepped questions about court-packing for weeks

  • President Trump had suggested Biden's silence was an indication he supported the idea

 

“I’m not a fan of court-packing,” Biden told WKRC-TV in Cincinnati. “But … I don’t want to get off on that whole issue. I want to keep focused.” 

The former vice president went on to criticize Republicans’ race to confirm Judge Amy Coney Barrett before the election, calling that a form of court-packing. 

“Court-packing’s going on now,” Biden said. “Never before, when an election has already begun and millions of votes already cast, has it ever been that a Supreme Court nominee was put forward. And one of the reasons is the only shot the American people get to determine who will be on a lifetime appointment to the Supreme Court or federal court is when they pick their senator or their president.”

Four years after Senate Republicans refused to confirm then-President Barack Obama’s Supreme Court pick, citing an election year, they are wasting little time pressing forward with President Donald Trump’s nominee. Some on the left have called for expanding the Supreme Court to counter the Republicans’ actions and balance the court.

Biden and his running mate, Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., had dodged questions about whether they supported the idea. According to The Washington Post, Biden’s advisers and allies calculated it would be a bigger risk to answer the question than to avoid it because no matter what stance he took it would anger many people who disagree.

Biden added that Trump “would love nothing better than to fight about whether or not I would in fact pack the court or not pack the court.” Trump has suggested Biden’s silence on the issue indicated he planned to expand the court. 

Biden had voiced his objection to court-packing while running in the Democratic primary, but it wasn’t clear before Monday if the events that followed Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s death last month might have prompted him to shift his views.

“I think it’s a bad idea,” Biden said during an August 2019 campaign event in Iowa. “It will come back to bite us. It should not be a political football.”