I’m not a campaign professional. No one has ever paid me to write a speech for them. So, I’m baffled at the callowness and lack of precision in how Biden and Harris are responding to court expansion. They are coming off as evasive and equivocating, when there is a strong argument to make. I’d like to see them say some or all of the following:
If we win this election and have a clear majority in the Senate, we will consult with congressional leadership and examine the unprecedented record of conservative judicial activism and court packing, including stonewalling Obama nominees to the federal bench and ramming through unqualified Trump nominees. We will gauge public opinion on the matter and consult legal scholars and come to a decision that we think is in the best interests of the American people. That is the responsible thing to do, not to make public commitments to a hypothetical that may not be relevant and about which we haven't gone through a responsible deliberative process.
Republicans will tell you that this means we will expand the court. They don’t know that. Because we don’t know that. And Senate Republicans are the last people who should be arguing points of principle and demanding commitments and word of honor. It’s beyond me why anyone believes them, when they have demonstrated that the only principle they obey is rabid partisan extremism.
The McConnell-Trump Republican party changes the rules back and forth when it suits their convenience. Now, the rules allow for their revision through democratic processes, and we will consider whether doing so is in the national interest, not through grandstanding frivolous commitments that have a half-life of whatever suits our ideologies.
Instead of continuously asking for a commitment that we are not ready to make at this time, perhaps you should be asking Senators Graham, McConnell, Gardner, Portman, Cornyn, Cruz, Rubio, Grassley, Ernst, Tillis, Inhofe, Perdue, Scott, Thomson, Toomey, Burr, Blunt, and Hoeven about their worthless commitments not to push through the confirmation of a Justice in an election year. When doing so, you might also ask why they think violating this commitment is more important that buckling down to finalize COVID economic relief.
As they have functioned as the majority, they have deeply impaired the norms that grant moral authority to the US Senate. Ask me as many times as you like, I will not contribute to the further degradation of these norms. I think Senators should keep their word. I think leaders should keep their word, not posture on points of principle and then do a 180 when it pleases the most extreme elements of their base on reproductive rights, corporate rights, and now we see even with regard to IVF treatments for families facing deeply painful fertility challenges.
From now on, until after election day, and likely some time after that, the only response you will receive on this issue will be: “next question”. Thank you for your time.