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- Sen. Ben Sasse slammed Joe Biden and Senate Democrats for declining to state their position on expanding the Supreme Court and called out the party for considering an elimination of the filibuster, according to The Hill.
- “What they’re really talking about — or refusing to talk about — is the suicide bombing of two branches of government,” Sasse said.
- Joe Biden has stated that he’ll express his position on adding seats to the Supreme Court after the election.
- Amid questions about how Judge Amy Coney Barrett would rule in major cases, Sasse defended her, saying that she was “very clear about her jurisprudence” as “an originalist and a textualist.”
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Sen. Ben Sasse on Sunday harshly criticized Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden for declining to state his position on expanding the Supreme Court and called out Senate Democrats for considering an elimination of the filibuster if they were to win a majority in November, according to The Hill.
Speaking to Chris Wallace on “Fox News Sunday,” the first-term GOP senator said that any attempts to eliminate the 60-vote rule to advance legislation and add seats to the Supreme Court would amount to a “suicide bombing” of government. When asked about his position on “court packing,” Biden has consistently said that he didn’t want his decision to be a headline and would state his position after the November election.
“It’s grotesque that Vice President Biden won’t answer that really basic question,” Sasse said. “And it isn’t just one branch of government. What they’re really talking about — or refusing to talk about — is the suicide bombing of two branches of government.”
He added: “What they’re talking about is blowing up the deliberative structure of the United States Senate by abolishing the filibuster and making it possible to turn the Senate into just another House of Representatives where every two years, by a 51-49 or 49-51 majority, major portions of American life change. And they’re talking about doing that to pack the Supreme Court.”
Hearings for Judge Amy Coney Barrett, President Trump's nominee to replace the late Ruth Bader Ginsburg on the Supreme Court, are set to begin this week amid outcry from Democrats over her ideology and the accelerated timeline of the confirmation process.
Sasse expressed his support for Barrett in the interview, saying that she was "very clear about her jurisprudence, she's an originalist and a textualist."
Amid heavy speculation on how she would rule in cases threatening the Affordable Care Act or abortion, Sasse added that judges "don't advocate for policy positions" and that "we shouldn't have either Democrats or Republicans on the committee trying to figure out how can they divine the future of how they're going to rule on particular cases."
If Barrett were to be confirmed to the Supreme Court, it would cement a 6-3 conservative majority on the bench. Biden has firmly maintained his stance that the winner of the November election should make the judicial nomination.