Barrett receiving a confirmation hearing by invoking the first Republican president, Abraham Lincoln.
"I'm so glad we went through a little history lesson. Let's do that a little more," Harris said."In 1864 ... Abraham Lincoln was up for reelection. And it was 27 days before the election. And a seat became open on the United States Supreme Court. Abraham Lincoln's party was in charge not only of the White House but the Senate.
"But Honest Abe said, 'It's not the right thing to do. The American people deserve to make the decision about who will be the next president of the United States, and then that person will be able to select who will serve on the highest court of the land,'" she added. While the basic facts are true—a seat on the Supreme Court opened up 27 days before the 1864 election and sitting president Lincoln did not name a nominee—Harris' description of Lincoln's reasoning is not entirely accurate. Though Lincoln told aides he was"waiting to receive expressions of public opinion from the country," according to, Lincoln's real motivation was to keep his rivals in the party from campaigning against him—particularly Salmon P. Chase.
In addition, the Republican Party of 1864 was divided into different factions. Since Congress was in recess until after the election, there was no reason to name a replacement and potentially cause a schism in the party. Chase was ultimately Lincoln's nominee in an attempt to keep Chase from his interest in obtaining the presidency for himself.
The fact he is still getting questioned about this while a man named Mitch McConnell exists is mind blowing
A couple ?'s from someone outside of the US. 1: How many judges could Biden put into the courts before the GOP started saying he was 'packing the courts'? 2: How many judges would need to be 'packed' into the courts for there to be equal representation by both parties?
Fact Check ..... UNTRUE. It is not against the Constitution
Dopey Biden
Right.. Biden was one those who wrote the constitution.. Check Hillay Clinton emails first ..
Of course it's constutional. Has Biden ever even read the Constitution? Apparently not.
Who needs to pack when they could impeach?
Not relevant. Go pester Mitch, Lindsey, Rafael... GOP hypocrites who decided to do away with our entire system and shamefully do whatever they want, so buzz off and stop bugging Joe.
In order to gain a fairness to the court, we'll have to expand the number of justices on it to something like 14.
That would be wild speculation for reason not to answer. You need to address the Republican Stacking the courts in the last 4 years with 200 judges that are not qualified. That is the Stacking question republicans need to answer for! Republican Senators Fault! dumpgop
Court packing is preposterous. President Trump had every right to appoint another Supreme Court Justice. The Democrats would've done the same thing, and rightfully so. Gotta learn to drown out the noise.
How is that so if he believed Merrick Garland's appointment would have been in 2016?
And just how is it not constitutional?
It’s literally right in the constitution. Somebody get him an Ensure
Liar he needs to read the constitution.
Did Barack the Constitutional Scholar tell him that?
: What have you asked Mitch McConnell about manipulating court appointments, last term and the current term?
Joe Biden is spineless. Answer the damn question. Joe Biden is showing who he really is, a coward.
Apparently Biden should try reading the Constitution.
Stop this nonsense Rs have been packing the courts for 4 yrs and this SCOTUS seat is being stolen
Newsweek, WAKE UP! DON'T talk irrelevant made-up GOP issues when 2020 Election is weeks away. Your obvious BIAS is showing. 'Evades' is editorializing GOP click-bait, while Dems focus on imminent Election, NOT on wishful GOP distractions.
President Obama’s nomination was looted by Moscow Mitch and passed to the Russia colluder, Trump.
He stated that voters don’t deserve to know what he plans to do. Strange.
What is precisely unconstitutional?
QUIT asking the GODDAM STUPID 'court packing' question! He's way up in the polls and has stayed on message. IF he answers either way, IT BECOMES THE STORY! No campaign would do that! MOVE ALONG!
I agree with Joe.
because he is used to not respecting law and order.
He obviously never read our Constitution. Because that's about the dumbest thing I have ever heard. In fact that's two dumb things Biden said in same 5 minutes. Please make it stop he needs to be institutionalized!
Stop asking this question. Ask about his policies ask about the changes he will make but stop doing the 'her emails' thing
It’s not on the table, so stop asking him about it.
Evades? This is why people dont trust the MSM.
You guys probably need to use the word 'expansion' instead of 'packing' SCOTUS SCOTUSnominee healthcare AmyConeyBarrett
JoeBiden doesn’t even know what he’s saying anymore. A prop to win an election because no one else can and he will soon be discarded. He does specialize in lies, and this is simply another.
That is answering it.
Once again evades question.....Good Grief! I thought I had unfollowed Newsweek. I'll make sure this time. I hate i was a print subscriber for many, many years. But, it was definitely different back then.
Cry harder
Can you say spineless Joe? Hello? Heck yeah he is going to pack the courts.
The courts have been packed by Republicans for the past 4 years...ask McConnell who is also trying to pack the Supreme Court during an election while people are voting.
Screw you!! We don’t need to tell you anything!!
Y’all are really trying to turn this into “her emails” despite the fact the Republicans do this stuff regularly. This is why it was sp easy to turn all of you into “fake news.” Be less garbage at this.
He just needs to say “I hope I’m not forced to consider adding seats to the court, but that decision will depend upon how the GOP behaves between now and my inauguration”
You know why he's even getting the court packing question? B/c the GOP has literally packed the fed'l courts for the last 4 yrs b/c Mitch McConnell prohibited Obama from nominating judges. And Trump--an impeached POTUS who lost the popular vote--is packing SCOTUS. DoBetter
Not appropriate for the majority and well being of Americans.
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