Politics

‘You’re Not Being Straight With Me’: Chris Wallace Challenges Chris Coons For Changing The Definition Of Court Packing

Virginia Kruta Associate Editor
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“Fox News Sunday” anchor Chris Wallace challenged Democratic Delaware Sen. Chris Coons on his assertion that Republicans were already packing the court.

Wallace specifically asked Coons to weigh in on the idea of adding justices to the Supreme Court, and the Delaware Senator pivoted to argue that the Trump administration’s focus on filling judicial vacancies amounted to court packing. (RELATED: ‘Has The Science Changed That Dramatically In One Week?’: Chris Wallace Pushes Back On Biden Campaign)

WATCH:

Beginning with Biden’s refusal to answer the question — along with his claim that voters would have to wait until after the election to hear his position on the issue — Wallace put the question to Coons.

“Senator, I’ve been doing this a long time and I don’t understand that answer. He says you’ll find out what my position is after the election and if I were to tell you, it would be a headline in every paper. Why not just be straight with the American voters on this issue before the election?” Wallace asked. (RELATED: ‘Oh Yeah, I Harangued [Trump]’: Chris Wallace Sarcastically Fires Back At Steve Cortes In Testy Exchange)

“I’ll tell you for the last four years I’ve seen unprecedented court packing,” Coons claimed, referencing the large number of judges that Trump and the Republican Senate had appointed and confirmed to the federal bench — all to fill vacancies.

“Instead of passing a COVID relief package that will help millions of Americans who are unemployed, who have been infected, whose businesses or employers have closed, we are focusing on jamming through Judge Barrett. I think this constitutes court packing,” Coons continued.

“Senator, with all due respect, you’re not being straight with me and you’re not answering my question,” Wallace pushed back. “We have 23 days left until the election. Can Vice President Biden, can Senator Harris, his running mate, can they continue to stonewall on a perfectly legitimate question? Biden says it’s legitimate. If you’re elected, will you try to change one of the three branches of government by adding justices to the court? There haven’t been any more than nine justices — I think it’s since the 1870s, it’s a pretty important question. Can he hold out and stonewall on that issue for three weeks?”

Coons once again dodged the direct question, saying instead that he hoped enough Republicans would vote with Democrats to stop the confirmation of Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett.

“Let me just say — I’m just going to say, that’s a different issue than packing the court,” Wallace concluded. “If that’s the question, whether or not the court should — the Senate should vote to confirm Barrett, that’s different than changing the number of justices on the court. Senator Coons, I got to leave it there, thank you.”