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Biden Warns Supreme Court Would Gut Women’s Rights if G.O.P. Seats Nominee Biden Gives Cautious Answers on Breonna Taylor and the Supreme Court
(about 7 hours later)
Joseph R. Biden Jr. on Wednesday sought to energize Democratic voters over the battle to replace Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg on the Supreme Court, warning that if Republicans confirmed President Trump’s expected nominee, “women’s rights as it relates to everything from medical health care is going to be gone.” Less than six weeks from Election Day, Joseph R. Biden Jr. on Wednesday shied away from two major issues of deep importance to Democrats, giving cautious responses to reporters’ questions about the police shooting of Breonna Taylor and President Trump’s imminent nomination for the Supreme Court.
“The Democrats should be going to the American people now — their voices are about to be heard, and it’s important that they make clear what’s going to happen,” Mr. Biden told reporters in Delaware before flying to host a Black economic summit meeting in Charlotte, N.C., the largest city in an important battleground. Several hours after a grand jury in Kentucky declined to charge any officers in the killing of Ms. Taylor, indicting one for endangering her neighbors during a raid, Mr. Biden said in response to a reporter’s question that he had “not seen the report” and that he knew only broad information.
The death of Justice Ginsburg on Friday has injected new uncertainty into an already volatile presidential calendar, with both political parties seizing on an issue that could fire up their bases even more. “I was told going in that there’s one charge against one of the officers. I don’t know the details,” Mr. Biden said, before vowing “to try to find that out” on his plane ride home from Charlotte, N.C.
Many Democrats, including Mr. Biden, have forcefully argued that Americans should be able to make their voices heard on Election Day as to which presidential candidate they want to determine the makeup of the nation’s highest court for years to come. Pressed for a fuller response, Mr. Biden again responded, “I don’t know the details, so I’m reluctant to comment.”
Republicans, however, have maintained that voters have already made their preferences clear by delivering them both the presidency and a Senate majority. Mr. Trump has said he would announce a nominee to fill Justice Ginsburg’s seat on Saturday, 38 days before Election Day. Two hours later, he issued a statement, sent by his campaign.
Enough Republicans have indicated that they would not oppose a vote on Mr. Trump’s pick to all but guarantee that the Senate will confirm a new justice who would tilt the court decisively to the right. “A federal investigation remains ongoing, but we do not need to wait for the final judgment of that investigation to do more to deliver justice for Breonna,” Mr. Biden said in the statement. He said the use of “excessive force” needed to be addressed and made an appeal against violence.
The president has promised to appoint justices who would be open to overturning Roe v. Wade, the 1973 ruling that legalized abortion, and his short list for Justice Ginsburg’s seat includes judges who have delivered staunchly conservative decisions, like Judge Amy Coney Barrett of the Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit. On another critical topic, the Supreme Court — days before Mr. Trump is expected to announce his nominee to fill the vacancy left by Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s death — Mr. Biden gave a similarly tentative answer.
But while Mr. Biden on Wednesday again laid out the high stakes of the confirmation fight, he did not echo some of the calls to action Democrats have made in recent days, including suggestions that they should pack the court if Republicans push Mr. Trump’s nominee through and Democrats win the White House and a Senate majority in November. Asked what he thought of Judge Amy Coney Barrett, who is considered Mr. Trump’s leading contender, Mr. Biden said: “I don’t know her. I just know what’s reported in the press,” before repeating his talking points on the Supreme Court.
Mr. Biden’s hesitancy to engage with top-of-mind issues reflected the risk-averse approach he has taken to several facets of his campaign, including limited interactions with voters who might challenge him and relatively few exchanges with reporters during a period of restricted travel and press availability because of the coronavirus.
And it underscores the gamble Mr. Biden’s campaign has made for months: that American voters will reward his sober, measured approach to politics that stands in sharp contrast to Mr. Trump’s.
But presidential nominees typically are not so circumspect about issues that energize their parties’ bases — especially, in Mr. Biden’s case, younger voters and progressives, many of whom did not initially support his candidacy in the primaries.
Told in the session with reporters that protests were expected on Wednesday night in response to the grand jury’s decision on Ms. Taylor’s death, Mr. Biden said that “they should be peaceful.” He then advised against violence, framing his plea as a request to honor Ms. Taylor’s memory. Mr. Trump has repeatedly attacked Mr. Biden in recent weeks, trying to paint him as weak on issues of crime and public safety.
“Do not sully her memory or her mother’s by engaging in any violence,” Mr. Biden said. “It’s totally inappropriate for that to happen. She wouldn’t want it, nor would her mother.”
After two Louisville police officers were shot during protests on Wednesday night, Mr. Biden said on Twitter that anyone who committed violence “must be held accountable.”
“Even amidst the profound grief & anger today’s decision generated, violence is never & can never be the answer,” he said.
Mr. Biden spent part of the day campaigning in North Carolina, a battleground state. As he headed there, he had warned that if Republicans confirmed Mr. Trump’s nominee, “women’s rights as it relates to everything from medical health care is going to be gone.”
In Charlotte, Mr. Biden hosted a Black economic summit meeting where he spoke with a group that included small-business owners and local leaders.
Many Democrats, including Mr. Biden, have argued that Americans should be able to decide on Election Day which presidential candidate they want to determine the makeup of the nation’s highest court for years to come.
Republicans, however, have maintained that voters have already made their preferences clear by delivering them both the presidency and a Senate majority. Mr. Trump has said he would announce his nominee on Saturday, and Senate Republicans appear to have enough votes for confirmation.
But while Mr. Biden on Wednesday again laid out the high stakes of the confirmation fight, he did not echo some of the calls to action Democrats have made recently, including suggestions about expanding the Supreme Court.
“We should go to the American people, make the case why this is a gigantic mistake and abuse of power,” Mr. Biden told reporters, arguing that the Supreme Court could issue rulings that have significant consequences for women in particular.“We should go to the American people, make the case why this is a gigantic mistake and abuse of power,” Mr. Biden told reporters, arguing that the Supreme Court could issue rulings that have significant consequences for women in particular.
“Women will be able to be charged more than men for the same procedures again,” Mr. Biden said, apparently alluding to worries among Democrats that a more conservative court could strike down the Affordable Care Act. “Pregnancy will be a pre-existing condition again.” “Women will be able to be charged more than men for the same procedures again,” Mr. Biden said, apparently alluding to worries among Democrats that the court could strike down the Affordable Care Act. “Pregnancy will be a pre-existing condition again.”
At the Black economic summit later on Wednesday in Charlotte — where he was introduced by Chris Paul, the basketball star — Mr. Biden did not mention the Supreme Court, though he did urge people to “show up and vote.” Among the topics he addressed were raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour and his plans to support historically Black colleges and universities. Asked after he arrived at the airport back in Delaware on Wednesday night about Mr. Trump’s refusal to commit to a peaceful transfer of power after the election, Mr. Biden professed little surprise.
“As bad as things have gotten, the blinders have sort of been taken off the American people now,” he told a group of socially distanced participants, including small-business owners and local leaders from the Black community. “What country are we in?” he said. “I’m being facetious. I said what country are we in? Look, he says the most irrational things.”
“Average people have gone, ‘My lord, holy mackerel, I didn’t know it was this bad,’” Mr. Biden continued, adding that the country had “a gigantic opportunity to fundamentally change the systemic racism and the systemic problems that exist in our system.” “I don’t know what to say,” he concluded.
Mr. Biden, in response to a question from Malcolm Graham, a Charlotte City Council member, also swiped at the Justice Department under the Trump administration, saying it had “turned into the president’s private law firm.”
“It’s the most dangerous thing that’s happened so far, is the politicization of the Department of Justice,” he said. “It’s become the Department of Trump, and that’s wrong,” he added, vowing that he would “not politicize” the department if elected.
“The Justice Department under my administration will be totally independent of me,” he said.
Among the changes Mr. Biden said he would make was ensuring that the Justice Department’s civil rights division had “access to and transparency into all police departments’ activities across the country.” He also said he would elevate the civil rights division so it would have a “direct office” inside the White House.