Thread by @jamisonfoser

Every single reporter demanding that Joe Biden answer a question but not demanding Pence/Trump answer a perfectly straightforward question about abortion bans in a post-Roe world is demonstrating their own bias.

The question Harris didn't answer last night was a question that *Mike Pence asked her so that he could duck the moderator's question about abortion rights* and the entire news media is helping Pence, revealing their own biases.

https://twitter.com/jamisonfoser/status/1314253930071617536

This little feeding-frenzy is a wonderful example of how reporters carry water for Republicans.

Pence ducked a moderator question about abortion, asking Harris an unrelated question to distract from it. Reporters privilege Pence's dodge by making the story about Biden/Harris.

Mike Pence dodged a debate question about banning abortion. Amy Coney Barrett failed to disclose talks on Roe in her Senate paperwork.

Maybe it’s time for reporters to start obsessively asking *Republicans* why they won’t answer these questions.

https://twitter.com/KFILE/status/1314597903911063554

It’s really fascinating that the political press corps is so dismissive of the importance of women’s rights that they’re helping Mike Pence duck a question about whether he’d support a ban on all abortion.

https://twitter.com/jamisonfoser/status/1314310416613339136

Just a reminder: your bias is showing.

https://twitter.com/jamisonfoser/status/1314310416613339136

There’s your answer, reporters. Now maybe you should ask Trump and Pence about whether they’d support total abortion bans if the SCOTUS they’re packing overturns Roe.

https://twitter.com/murshedz/status/1315018612583792640

This is actually because reporters are eagerly carrying water for the GOP out of some combination of stupidity, malice, boredom, and delusion that behaving like this will convince Republicans to drop their insincere attacks on the media.

https://twitter.com/davelevitan/status/1315355321188200449

PENCE: *dodges moderator question, asks Harris a question to avoid answering his own*

HARRIS: *doesn’t answer*

REPORTERS: omgomgomgomg Biden/Harris are dodging this question!1!!1!

REPORTERS: Wow, Republicans really drove the conversation. They’re so good at politics!

The other absurdity of all of this is that Mitch McConnell can, if he wants to, make it highly unlikely that Democrats expand the court. All McConnell has to do is simply *decide not to carry out an illegitimate power grab* and momentum for expansion would slow considerably.

To be clear, regardless of what McConnell does, the Supreme Court is undemocratic in composition (14 of last 18 justices nominated by party that lost 6 of last 7 popular votes) and in action (gutted Voting Rights Act, for e.g.) so I want to expand & rebalance it regardless. But…

Democrats probably won’t do that unless GOP fills the current vacancy before the next president is sworn in, thus making their unprecedented power grab undeniable.

So, really, it’s up to McConnell. To my dismay, he can probably prevent expansion by just doing the right thing.

If 9 is sacred to Republicans, all they need to do is hold this vacancy for the winner of the presidential election, and we’ll likely have 9 justices with a 5-4 conservative majority.

But 9 isn’t sacred to Republicans — only power is. So here we are.

¯\_(ツ)_/¯