Democratic candidates trying to knock off incumbent Republican senators have lined up to disavow the idea of packing the Supreme Court, raising even more questions about why Joe Biden can’t do the same.
Cal Cunningham (North Carolina), Sara Gideon (Maine), Theresa Greenfield (Iowa), Mark Kelly (Arizona), and Jon Ossoff (Georgia) all confirmed to the Washington Examiner that they would oppose adding more justices to the Supreme Court should they defeat the Republican incumbents in their respective states. They’re joined by Democrat Sen. Gary Peters, who is facing a tough challenge from John James in Michigan.
Only three major Democratic challengers have refused to rule it out: failed presidential candidates Steve Bullock (Montana), John Hickenlooper (Colorado), and Jaime Harrison, who is relying on donations from left-wing activists to try and catch Sen. Lindsey Graham in South Carolina.
Whether these Senate candidates actually hold true to their word is another question for another day. But Biden’s contention that he can’t answer the question because then his position will “become the issue” is an obvious cop-out. Clearly, it is an issue that a candidate for president won’t rule out packing the Supreme Court because they don’t give out the ruling he likes. So, if Democratic Senate challengers can rule it out, why can’t Biden?
There are two possibilities. The first is simply that Biden, like Harrison in South Carolina, doesn’t want to alienate his left wing. Hillary Clinton’s 2016 loss was aided by Bernie Sanders voters refusing to vote for her, even if it was just one of the many reasons for her defeat. Biden has already spurned them once by disavowing the “Green New Deal,” and he may not want to double the affront.
The more damaging possibility is that the moderate intuitionalist Biden is actually in favor of packing the Supreme Court. Biden ruled it out during the Democratic primary (though notably, running mate Kamala Harris did not), but he’s changed his tune since then. It wouldn’t be the first of Biden’s flip-flops: He has swung from supporting to opposing the Hyde Amendment and has recanted his support for the Senate filibuster since he started running for president. He also can’t seem to give a clear stance on fracking.
Biden hopes that his non-answer will get drowned out by news cycle after news cycle, but it’s a question that needs to be asked repeatedly. Until Biden can give a yes or no answer on whether he wants to add Supreme Court justices, it’s safe to assume the worst possible answer. And it certainly should “become the issue.”
