Biden Says He’s ‘Not A Fan’ Of Expanding The Supreme Court

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Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden, seen here at a campaign event in Cincinnati, Ohio, on Monday, told a local TV station he is «not a fan» of court packing.

Jim Watson/AFP via Getty Images

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Jim Watson/AFP via Getty Images

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In the past, Biden has been upfront about his disdain for expanding the court. During a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing in 1983, he denounced President Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s attempts to do so decades prior. And he again expressed opposition to the idea on the campaign trail in 2019.

«I would not get into court packing,» Biden during a Democratic primary debate. «We add three justices. Next time around, we lose control, they add three justices. We begin to lose any credibility the court has at all.»

But in the final stretch of the general election campaign, Biden has repeatedly said that taking a strong stance on the issue now plays into the hands of President Trump.

Instead, his campaign has tried to shift the focus to criticizing the Trump administration and Senate Republicans for their efforts to confirm Barrett so close to the election, despite Republicans having denied a hearing to Merrick Garland, then-President Barack Obama’s court nominee, months before the 2016 election.

«That’s the court packing the public should be focused on,» Biden said in his interview in Cincinnati.

• 2020 presidential election