Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden says it is unconstitutional for Senate Republicans to confirm President Donald Trump’s Supreme Court nominee as millions of Americans are voting and with less than 30 days till the Nov. 3 election.
CNN’s Jake Tapper played a clip from Saturday of Biden arguing that Senate Republicans’ push to confirm Judge Amy Coney Barrett is unconstitutional. Biden said, “It’s not constitutional what they’re doing. We should be focused on what’s happening right now. This court is being attacked now by the Republicans after the vote has already begun.
On Sunday, He asked Biden campaign spokesperson Kate Bedingfield, “How is it not constitutional what they’re doing?”
“His point is the people have an opportunity to weigh in on this Constitutional process through their vote,” she responded.
She continued, “And we are now in the midst of the election. Millions of people have already cast their votes. And you see that the vast majority of people say that they want the person who wins the election on November 3rd to nominate the justice.”
Tapper interjected to say, “That’s a poll. That’s not the Constitution.”
Bedingfield argued that the American people should “have their say” in the process of filling a vacancy on the Supreme Court by choosing their senators and the president, and she claimed that voters’ “constitutional right to have a say in the process” is being denied by Republicans.
However, Tapper countered, “There’s nothing unconstitutional about the U.S. Senate is doing.”
Watch the video below:
CNN’s @jaketapper presses Biden’s deputy campaign manager Kate Bedingfield on Biden’s claim that confirming President Trump’s Supreme Court pick before the election would be “unconstitutional.” pic.twitter.com/v4ny343qCv
— State of the Union (@CNNSOTU) October 11, 2020
He then turned to Biden’s “bizarre” decision to refuse to answer whether or not support expanding the Supreme Court. He asked, “Biden opposes adding justices to the court. He has for decades. So why is he refusing to weigh in on it now?”
“Because Donald Trump and the Republicans don’t get to set the terms of this debate,” Bedingfield said. “This is a distraction that they want to throw out … they are trying to create a distraction and send folks down a rabbit hole talking about this. When what we should be focused on, and what Joe Biden is focused on, is the vote on November 3rd and making sure that they don’t have the opportunity to ram through a nominee.”
But Tapper noted that the latest discussion about expanding the Supreme Court “came from the progressive side of the Democratic Party.”
He asked once more, “Has he changed his mind, or does he have the same position he’s had since at least 1983?”
Bedingfield said, “But, look, see I think you only have to look at how hard, for example, Vice President Pence wanted to go at this in the debate last week, rather than answer a question about what his administration would do to protect pre-existing conditions. To me, that tells you everything you need to know.”
In recent weeks, Biden has refused to answer whether he would support expanding the Supreme Court if he won the presidency and Democrats regained control of the Senate. Late last week, he said, “You’ll know my opinion on court-packing when the election is over.”
