Adding Seats to Supreme Court Would ‘Permanently Destroy’ It: Trump

President Donald Trump speaks from the Blue Room Balcony of the White House to a crowd of supporters in Washington on Oct. 10, 2020. Alex Brandon/AP Photo

Adding seats to the Supreme Court would destroy it, President Donald Trump alleged over the weekend.

Trump is staunchly opposed to the proposal to add seats to the nation’s highest court, a proposal referred to as court packing. But his rival, Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden, has refused to say whether he supports the proposal, which is being promoted by some Democrat lawmakers.

“FDR’s own party told him you cannot PACK the United States Supreme Court, it would permanently destroy the Court,” Trump said in a social media post.

“But now the Radical Left Democrats are pushing Biden to do this. He has zero chance against them!” he added.

President Franklin Delano Roosevelt tried to add seats to the court when it ruled against some of his legislative proposals. The effort failed.

Packing the court would likely require control of both congressional bodies and the presidency, with little to no support among Republicans. The GOP currently holds the Senate and the presidency.

The number of seats on the court isn’t set by the Constitution but has remained at nine since 1894.

Biden in recent days said he wouldn’t reveal his position on court packing until after the election and that voters don’t deserve to know where he stands.

Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden speaks to reporters upon his departure from Erie, Penn., on Oct. 10, 2020. Kevin Lamarque/Reuters

Trump and Vice President Mike Pence have said Biden and Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) refuse to answer questions about court packing directly because they support the proposal.

“There’s only one explanation why Joe Biden and Kamala Harris won’t answer the question. It’s because Joe Biden and Kamala Harris want to pack the court. But we’re not going to let it happen,” Pence told a rally in Florida over the weekend.

Biden erroneously told reporters on Saturday that Republicans were violating the Constitution by moving forward with Trump’s latest Supreme Court nominee despite the election being so close.

Democrats say that because early voting has started in some states, the Senate shouldn’t vote on Judge Amy Coney Barrett’s nomination until it’s made clear whether Trump has won a second term or Biden has beaten him.

Confronted with the fact that there’s no violation of the Constitution, Biden campaign spokeswoman Kate Bedingfield said on CNN’s “State of the Union” that Biden’s point was “that the people have an opportunity to weigh in on this constitutional process through their vote.”

“And we are now in the midst of the election. Millions of people have already cast their votes. And you see that the vast majority of people say that they want the person who wins the election on Nov. 3 to nominate the justice to take this seat,” she said.

“That’s a poll. That’s not the Constitution,” the host rejoined.

The Senate Judiciary Committee hearings for Barrett’s nomination start on Monday.