WAUKESHA, Wisc. (NBC) – Vice President Mike Pence attacked the Biden-Harris ticket for not directly answering whether they support adding justices beyond the nine who currently make up the Supreme Court.
Pence made the charge during a campaign rally in Wisconsin as Judge Amy Coney Barrett was undergoing her second day of Senate confirmation hearings.
Both Joe Biden and Senator Harris have been pressed multiple times on whether they support “packing” the Supreme Court, ostensibly with liberal justices, should they win this fall.
Biden has said any answer would be a distraction from Coney Barrett’s confirmation process.
Vice President Pence said Tuesday Biden’s hesitation isn’t good enough.
He told the crowd, “Talking about the Supreme Court, the people of Wisconsin deserved to know that after 150 years with nine seats on the Supreme Court of the United States, Democrats in Washington are actually talking about packing the court. And Joe Biden is refusing to answer the question. He refused to answer the question in the presidential debate. His running mate, Kamala Harris, refused to answer the question when I posed it to her. And last Friday, Joe Biden was asked if voters deserved to know if he was going to pack the court and she said and I quote, ‘no they don’t.’ Well Joe, yes we do.”
Joe Biden did say more directly on Monday that he is “not a fan of court-packing.”
He gave that answer during an interview with a Cincinnati television station.
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