by JAZZ SHAW
As is the usual pattern on the morning after a political debate, with only a few clicks of the mouse, you can find expert analysts claiming Mike Pence or Kamala Harris “won” last night’s encounter… sometimes on the same page. Others with a bit more of a sense of humor suggest that the real winner was the fly that landed on Mike Pence’s head and stayed there for over two minutes. (That fly is no Pizza Rat, but still earned its fifteen minutes of fame.) Still, there was actually some substance to the exchanges between the two candidates. Perhaps the most telling engagement of the entire affair, and arguably one of the Vice President’s best moments of the evening, came when the subject of Democrats potentially packing the Supreme Court came up. Following in Joe Biden’s footsteps, Kamala Harris once again simply ignored the question and refused to answer. (Free Beacon)
“Your party is actually openly advocating adding seats to the Supreme Court, which has had nine seats for 150 years, if you don’t get your way,” Pence said. “Now you’ve refused to answer the question. Joe Biden has refused to answer the question, so I think the American people would really like to know. If Judge Amy Coney Barrett is confirmed to the Supreme Court of the United States, are you and Joe Biden going to pack the Supreme Court to get your way?”
Harris said the open Supreme Court seat should not be filled while an election was underway but would not directly answer Pence’s question.
Pence repeated his question and said it was clear to viewers that she and Biden would pack the Court. Harris accused the Trump administration of packing the lower courts with what she deemed substandard judges, but she again dodged responding to Pence’s query.
“I just want the record to reflect she never answered the question. Maybe in the next debate Joe Biden will answer the question,” Pence said.
I’m not sure when the decision to adopt this strategy was made at Biden HQ, but it’s one of the more tone-deaf choices in recent memory. Both Biden and (potentially) Harris are asking to be placed in one of the most powerful positions in the world. And among the many powers granted to presidents, one of the arguably most weighty abilities is the opportunity to select the people who will serve on the nation’s highest court, potentially for a generation. How they plan to handle that responsibility is obviously of interest to the voters who are weighing their decision for November 3rd.
The way that Harris pulled off this trick is actually far more insulting to the public than what her running mate has done. At least when Joe Biden was asked about court-packing he flatly stated, “I’m not going to answer the question.” While unhelpful to the voting public, at least he owned the fact that he’s refusing to divulge his intentions. By contrast, Kamala Harris was asked the question multiple times and simply chose to answer a different question that hadn’t been asked. The situation was bad enough that Pence was finally forced to ask that the record reflect that Harris had dodged the issue yet again.
Of course, this really isn’t all that different from much of the rest of the Biden-Harris campaign. There’s been so little substance offered on policy throughout the contest that it’s difficult for anyone to know what their plans are if they are elected. Most of the time, Biden won’t commit to anything he actually plans on doing aside from a promise (that was repeated by Harris last night) to raise all of your taxes “on day one.” Aside from that, their joint platform is largely a mystery.
Who ever coached her for the debate was a failure. She dumped out so many debunked media insults of Trump without taking a second breath. It all came out as practiced. Pence bitch slapped her with facts and reality.
Im not going to be lectured then dives into lecturing.
Pence answer to the kid question at the end blew her toy boat of lies out of the pond.
She had her shrew like Clinton channeling down, unlikable and evasive.
Corona fly drone?
Harris had her project 1619 moment about Abe Lincoln too.
All right Ding-Bat we wont elect you and so you cant pack the court now please return to your Haunted Castle and try out your new Broom
Yeah, we caught that at the time she said it.
Main reason was that, back when REAL history was taught in school, I was forced to do a research paper on Abe.
So, I knew he didn’t wait to put forward his SCOTUS pick intil after the election out of any desire to allow the election to take place.
He did it because, back then, Congress, both Houses, took LONG breaks.
The Senate session ended on July 4, 1864, and did not convene again until December 5, 1864. The opening occurred on October 12, 1864, during that recess. The election also occurred during that recess.
No politics were involved.
Harris lied all thru that debate.
Shamelessly.
I actually agree that Dems owe the American people an answer as to if they intend to stack the court. But obviously, they aren’t going to.
I guess, get over it.
@Ronald J. Ward: Sep 21, 2020 — A rising number of prominent Democrats are speaking out in favor of “packing” the Supreme Court, and have said nothing is off the table.
It wouldnt be the first time the court was used as a political weapon.
https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2020/09/19/how-democrats-could-pack-the-supreme-court-in-2021-418453
@Ronald J. Ward: They owe an answer to a bigger question: should the American people tolerate a party who changes the rules instead of wins elections.
The Democrat Party is tyrannical and must be reformed.
Trump and the GOP are actually in the process of creating a Supreme Court weighted in favor of their own political and social ideology. Most viewed the court composition as well-balanced before Ginsberg’s passing. Taken together, the court’s rulings on various issues came down favoring one side as often as the other. You didn’t like their rulings upholding Obamacare? Others disliked the implications of their Citizens United ruling every bit as much.
Trump intends to upend that balance. It’s an openly stated intention. It’s part of the republican election pitch. It’s absurd to pretend otherwise. It’s being done after republicans kept Merrick Garland’s nomination in limbo for the better part of a year on the pretext that “an election is coming and the people must be given a voice in this”.
The mention of court packing is a recommendation that they back the hell off. Let it go until after the election—which in this case is only 26 days away, not the better part of a year. If republicans aren’t going to play by their own rules, why should they expect democrats to do so?
As if a deny would not nominate leftist activists. Elections have consequences.
I for one am glad President Trump is putting more conservatives on the Federal as well as the Supreme Court. Leftist activists such as ginsberg, kagan the lesbian and sotemeyer the Latina need to be replaced with those who adhere to the constitution and do not try to legislate from the bench.
The courts are important to the communist left because they are unable to win at the ballot box because of their extremist views. Well past time to remove the influence of the left from the body politic.
You’ve got that right. I voted today, mid-afternoon on the second day of early voting in Indiana. Forty minutes in line. I think we’re going to see one to the highest voter turn-outs in modern history.
I think that’s because their plans are so radical they do not dare make them public.
As with Obama and the auto/gasoline standards, some of their hints of plans are also physically infeasible. Darn those laws of physics!
And sometimes they do an Obama by claiming to be for allowing fracking to continue when they know full well, they can only outlaw it on FEDERAL land, not PRIVATE property. Remember Obama stewing over this then taking credit for how America frackers (on their own land) got the price of oil down?
Took the credit.
IF they could ban all fracking the Biden/Harris ticket would do so “on day one.”
Frankly these are the puppets.
The puppet masters are hiding in the shadows ready to foist a socialist/communist agenda on America thru them IF we elect them.
Yeah, if they get power, packing the Court is one of the least of our problems.
There goes the 1st and 2nd Amendments.
And then, watch out for the 3rd!
People I knew who lived under Soviet rule know the 3rd is really an important amendment for keeping freedom alive between elections.
@Ronald J. Ward:
Actually, what a wise person who actually cares about the future of this country should do is vote against these two leftist liars. Obviously, they are afraid of alienating half of their constituency whatever answer they give. If they admit to going forward with packing the courts, they will enrage the dwindling number of moderate and reasonable Democrats who don’t necessarily want to see the nation railroaded into a third world police state. If they promise to prevent packing the courts, they will alienate their growing far, far left socialist/Marxist bloc that are gaining more and more power and hope to be pulling Biden’s strings… until he is discarded.
@Greg:
Yeah… the CONSTITUTIONAL ideology.
It’s also Trump’s obligation. Now, if the decrepit, debilitated Ginsburg had retired during Obama’s rein of error, we wouldn’t be having this debate. But, she didn’t and it was HER wish that the President fill the seat.
@Nan G: If Russia has a say (and, with Biden, they most certainly would) our energy production would be greatly curtailed to make Russia (and Putin) richer and more powerful. They and OPEC have already tried to low-ball oil prices to destroy our production capacities; our energy independence hurts them. But corrupt people would look to profit from bending to their will; Biden has already demonstrated his capacity for self-enrichment with China. Hypocritical Democrats see no problem with this.