Biden Has His Court-Packing Answer

He tells '60 Minutes' he'll create a bipartisan committee to weigh in
By John Johnson,  Newser Staff
Posted Oct 22, 2020 8:31 AM CDT
Biden Has His Court-Packing Answer
Joe Biden waves as he arrives at The Queen theater in Wilmington, Del., Monday, Oct. 19, 2020.   (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

In Thursday night's final debate, Joe Biden is expected to be grilled on whether he would try to add more justices to the Supreme Court as president. In an excerpt of a 60 Minutes interview released by CBS News, Biden appears to have settled on his answer: Instead of a yes or a no, he promises to set up a bipartisan committee to weigh in. "What I will do is I’ll put together a ... bipartisan commission of scholars, constitutional scholars, Democrats, Republicans, liberal, conservative,” Biden tells Norah O’Donnell, per the Hill. "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 says "it's not about court packing," adding that the panel would look at a wide range of issues. When O'Donnell presses him on whether the panel would specifically study whether to "pack the court," Biden responds that "there's a number of alternatives," but doesn't rule it out. So "this is a live ball," says O'Donnell. "Oh, it is a live ball," says Biden. "The last thing we need to do is turn the Supreme Court into just a political football—whoever has the most votes gets whatever they want," he says. "Presidents come and go. Supreme Court justices stay for generations." The full interview airs Sunday. In his own interview with the show, President Trump said his main domestic priority is "to get back to normal" and reignite the economy. (However, Trump cut short his contentious talk with Lesley Stahl and called it "FAKE.")

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