Sen. Raphael Warnock (D-GA) just dodged the question of whether he is in favor of packing the U.S. Supreme Court, Breitbart News reports.
Warnock did so on Friday night during a debate that took place between himself and Herschel Walker, the Georgia Republican who is vying for Warnock’s U.S. Senate seat.
Warnock’s non-answer
During the debate, Warnock did what Democrats always do when asked a question they don’t want to answer: he provided a longwinded non-answer.
Warnock said:
What I support — listen, I think that my job as a Senator is to protect the rights of ordinary citizens. And for the first time, perhaps, in my lifetime, we’ve seen those rights contract rather than expand, whether we’re talking about the reproductive rights of women, or voting rights. And, I’m going to do everything I can to protect the rights of the citizens of Georgia.
This, of course, leaves open the question of whether this includes court packing. Based on Warnock’s answer, all one could say is that Warnock would support it if he believes it will “protect the rights of the citizens of Georgia,” which isn’t much help to the voter.
Background
The Democrats have been pushing court packing ever since former President Donald Trump gave the U.S. Supreme Court a conservative majority by nominating three conservative justices to the bench: Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh, and Amy Coney Barrett.
The idea of court packing is to expand the number of justice on the Supreme Court from nine to a bigger number. Four additions, for example, have often been suggested. This would give President Joe Biden four nominations, which would swing the court’s balance of power back over to the liberals.
The problem for the Democrats is that court-packing is not a popular idea. And so, most Democrats have shied away from the issue, particularly as the midterm elections approached. This even includes more extremist-type Democrats such as Warnock.
Right now, as Warnock’s response demonstrates, the only thing that matters for the Democrats is winning the midterms. After that, all bets are off.
A comparison
Walker, on Frida, was asked the same question about court packing. He said:
When you get in Washington, you have to become a leader. Being a leader, you have to make tough decisions. You see on that answer there, he really didn’t give you an answer. So my answer there is: no. No.
It shows that it is almost always easier to answer questions truthfully.
This race between Warnock and Walker is a pivotal one for the control of the U.S. Senate. Warnock is in the lead in the polls, on average, by 3.3 percentage points, according to Real Clear Politics.