Home Partly_True: Joe Biden stated in an interview that people did not need to know how he stands on court packing.

Partly_True: Joe Biden stated in an interview that people did not need to know how he stands on court packing.

By: Priyam Nayak

November 3 2020

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Partly_True: Joe Biden stated in an interview that people did not need to know how he stands on court packing.

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After commenting voters do not "deserve" to know his stance, Biden walked back on it saying voters have a right to know in another interview.

After commenting voters do not "deserve" to know his stance, Biden walked back on it saying voters have a right to know in another interview.Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden has received criticism for not giving any clear answers despite repeated questions about whether he would “pack” the court by nominating additional justices, which have prompted attacks from President Trump's campaign. In one instance, Las Vegas's KTNV anchor Ross DiMattei during an interview with Biden said, "I've got to ask you about packing the courts. And I know you that said yesterday you aren't going to answer the question until after the election. But this is the number one thing I've been asked about from viewers in the past couple of days." "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," Biden responded. "Well, sir, don't the voters deserve to know?" DiMattei asked. "No, they don't," Biden said. "I'm not going to play his game. He'd love me to talk about — and, and I've already said something on pack the court. But he'd love that to be the discussion." Biden tried to walk that back a bit in an ABC News town-hall interview on Oct. 15 where on being asked by ABC's George Stephanopoulos on whether voters have a right to know where he stands, Biden responded, “They do have a right to know where I stand, and they’ll have a right to know where I stand before they vote." He also said he’d clarify his position on court-packing before the election, depending on how Barrett’s confirmation hearing was handled. On Oct. 13, Biden said he's "not a fan" of expanding the Supreme Court's size during an interview with WKRC-TV in Cincinnati while the Senate was conducting hearings for the nomination of Justice Amy Coney Barrett. "I'm not a fan of court packing but I don't want to get off on that whole issue," Biden said. "I want to keep focused. The president would love nothing better than to fight about whether or not I would, in fact, pack the court or not pack the court,” he added. Biden and other Democrats have slammed Trump for seeking to get a nominee for the Supreme Court confirmed less than a month before an election. The Washington Post reported that Biden refused to directly answer questions on expanding the Supreme Court because it would give Trump what he wanted and take the focus away from the issues in the recently concluded nomination fight. On Oct. 22, Biden gave one of the most straightforward answers on the issue of court-packing. He said “If elected, what I will do is I'll put together a national commission of — bipartisan commission of scholars, constitutional scholars, Democrats, Republicans, liberal, conservative. And I will ask them to over 180 days come back to me with recommendations as to how to reform the court system because it's getting out of whack,” Biden told CBS’ Norah O’Donnell.

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