You’ve got to hand it to Joe Biden. He’s taken an issue voters barely gave a thought to six months ago and elevated it one of the defining issues of the election. Unfortunately for the Democratic nominee, the issue in question is not climate change or race and ethnic inequality. It is court-packing.
By strenuously refusing to say whether he supports this plan, which members of his own party have threatened to ram through if they take control of the White House and both chambers of Congress, Biden has raised awareness not only of this diabolical scheme but of his refusal to commit one way or the other. This in turn has fueled headlines like this one from Thursday’s Atlantic: “Biden and Harris need an answer on court packing.”
It has also led to interviews like this one by Las Vegas ABC affiliate KTNV in which a reporter asked the former vice president whether voters “deserve to know” his stance on court-packing. “No, they don’t,” Biden responded remarkably.
Will this presidential election be the most important in American history?
Reporter: "Don't the voters deserve to know [your position on packing the courts?]"@JoeBiden: "No, they don't deserve" pic.twitter.com/xF1Ywtf0od
— Washington Examiner (@dcexaminer) October 10, 2020
He went on to attempt to defend his indefensible position by asserting that the voters who demand an answer are “probably Republicans” seeking to divert the conversation away from Donald Trump’s failures as a president. But if that were true, he wouldn’t be hearing the question asked by so many mainstream media outlets.
Biden was asked the question again in Phoenix, where he responded, “The moment I answer that question, the headline in every one of your papers will be about that.” That’s probably true, but that’s the nature of high-stakes politics. The longer he puts off answering, the greater the weight that will be attached to his response.
