Biden bid to ‘cool the flames’
Joe Biden yesterday sought to derail a push by President Donald Trump to swiftly install a new Supreme Court justice, making an unusually personal appeal to Senate Republicans to ‘‘cool the flames’’ and sidestepping calls from many in his own party for dramatic retaliatory measures such as expanding the size of the Supreme Court if Trump presses ahead.
Seeking to present himself as a president who would defuse the political and cultural battles engulfing the nomination process, Biden said that if he wins the November election he should be the one to fill the vacancy created by the death of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, whom Trump and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., have vowed to quickly replace.
Speaking in Philadelphia, Biden issued an extraordinary appeal to his former Senate colleagues, pleading with moderate Republicans to oppose Trump and McConnell and saying the vacancy presents those senators with a moral test.
‘‘We need to de-escalate, not escalate,’’ Biden said. ‘‘So I appeal to those few Senate Republicans, the handful who really will decide what happens: Please, follow your conscience. Don’t vote to confirm anyone nominated under the circumstances President Trump and Senator McConnell have created. Don’t go there.’’
Biden’s remarks contrasted the reaction of many Democratic activists who are enraged that McConnell is pushing an electionyear appointment after blocking President Barack Obama’s nomination of Judge Merrick Garland four years ago.
Proposals such as adding more justices to the Supreme Court, long considered fringe, are gaining more acceptance in the party’s mainstream, as many Democrats say Republicans are no longer playing by longaccepted rules.
Rather than weighing in on such ideas, Biden stressed lesspolarising issues – noting that a new conservative justice could threaten the Affordable Care Act, which faces a challenge before the Supreme Court, and strip away health-care protections during a pandemic. It was part of a synchronised message on the court and the ACA, known as Obamacare, with top Democratic leaders on Capitol Hill. A Biden aide said both sides were in touch and would be co-ordinating regularly.
While Trump has released a list of potential appointees to the court, Biden said yesterday that he would not do so, suggesting it would inflame tensions and subject the prospects to political attacks.
He reiterated his commitment to nominating an African American woman, and said Republican and Democratic senators would have input on his selection.
Supreme Court confirmation battles have been among the most explosive political events of recent years, culminating in the angry 2018 fight over now-Justice Brett Kavanaugh. The prospect of another such battle threatened to further roil the already bitter presidential campaign at a time when Biden is seeking to project the aura of a different kind of leader.
With yesterday’s comments, Biden turned the Supreme Court vacancy into an early test of his philosophy that Democrats should reach out to receptive Republicans rather than match the GOP’s belligerence with their own – an approach that is rejected by many in the party’s liberal wing.
During his speech at the Constitution Center, the former vice president stressed repeatedly that voting had already begun, saying that would make the rush to confirm a new justice an affront to democracy.