Raphael Warnock, Georgia Democrat Senate candidate, repeatedly refused to answer whether or not he supports court-packing.
Supreme Court-packing has gained steam in the Democrat Party in the past years since President Trump has been afforded the chance to appoint three U.S. Supreme Court justices.
Court-packing is an idea of expanding the court. This could broaden the U.S. Supreme Court from the usual nine to as many as 15 justices. Today, Democrats characterize court packing as a defensive move against the Republicans, and as such, the majority of Americans oppose it.
Fox News also described court packing as a “fringe idea” that was last ventured over 80 years ago by Democrat President Franklin D. Roosevelt, “who sought to force through parts of his New Deal that were ruled unconstitutional by the high court.”
Warnock, who is running against Senator Kelly Loeffler, was asked by the moderator with a question about court-packing saying, “If Democrats do win control of the U.S. Senate, there will be pressure to increase the size of the U.S. Supreme Court. Would you support adding more justices to the Supreme Court to offset President Trump’s recent appointments?”
Georgia Democrat Senate candidate Raphael Warnock repeatedly refused to answer during a debate on Sunday night whether he supports packing the U.S. Supreme Court. Supreme … https://t.co/mhVa0ZEtl7
— Conservative News Daily (@ConservNewsDly) December 7, 2020
Instead of answering the question, Warnock completely ignored it and said, “I want to point out that Kelly Loeffler actually voted to defund the police. And as I move all across the state,… people aren’t asking me about the courts and whether we should expand the courts.”
He later added by saying, “I know that’s an interesting question for people inside the beltway to discuss.”
After avoiding the question, the moderator then again asked Warnock to answer the question. Warnock again refused to answer and said, “I’m really not focused on it.”
Meanwhile, recent polls have found that most Americans approved confirming Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court. The support for her increased as the public had seen more of her. On the other hand, only 28% of the public opposed her confirmation.
The issue of packing the court is so controversial that even top Democrats disagree on it. Including them is Senator Joe Manchin, who told Fox News that he would not vote to pack the courts.
Nancy Pelosi: “With this usurped Supreme Court seat, the President is ripping away millions of families’ health care in the middle of a pandemic that has infected over 8.6 million and killed nearly one-quarter of a million Americans.”
This woman is sick.https://t.co/AI6gx4ooTM
— Paladin 🇺🇸 (@TheNewsGuy) October 27, 2020
The recent appointment of Justice Amy Coney Barrett by President Trump was responded to by threats from the Democrat party of packing the courts. In a statement by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), she claimed that Justice Barretts’ confirmation had “usurped Supreme Court seat.” Pelosi also challenged without evidence that President Trump had “manipulated the Supreme Court.
Meanwhile, during the campaign trail, Joe Biden had been consistent in refusing to answer whether or not he supports court-packing. Biden even said at one point that voters “don’t deserve to know” whether he supports the idea or not.
Later on, Biden found a way to get out of answering the issue when he announced that he would create a national commission that will evaluate court reform ideas.
Biden told CBS News, “If elected, what I will do is I’ll put together a national commission of bipartisan commission of scholars, constitutional scholars, Democrats, Republicans, liberal, conservative,” He added that he would ask the national commission to come back to him with recommendations after 180 days, to see how they can reform the court system. According to him, reform is needed because it is “getting out of whack, and the way how it is being handled.”
