Thread by @hunterw

I understand Biden hasn't directly answered the question on "court packing," but his position actually seems pretty clear to me?

Biden is clearly indicating he's open to court reform. He's not ruling it out or taking it off the table. Biden is indicating frustration with what happened with MerricK Garland and now Coney Barrett. It seems like his ultimate position may be defined by how that unfolds.

https://twitter.com/mollynagle3/status/1315016128331223047

It's not the most direct or transparent answer in the world, but it's also not the black box of utter mystery some reporters frame it as. I suspect it's kind of reaching to find something to hammer Biden on amid continued relentless questions for Trump on taxes and COVID tests.

Frankly, if I was covering his initial comments on this, I'd probably have said "Biden won't rule out adding justices to Court." That's really the clear position but no one is covering it that way because we're all following a faulty storyline where he refused to answer.

Perhaps, rather than repeatedly asking the same question, a better one would be to follow up and ask Biden how the ACB confirmation might influence his position. Is he less interested in changing the court if she doesn't make it through?

One underlying problem with the recent Court coverage is it ignores that what Mitch McConnell did to Merrick Garland was unprecedented. That's treated as business as usual now and any potential change is "packing."

McConnell's moves on Garland were game changing packing about as much as structual changes from a future president would be.

Also important to note court reform - changing the number of judges or adding term limits - isn't a partisan issue necessarily. Notably, Rick Perry was vocal about this in his 2016 campaign. Ultimately, a larger number of term limited justices could dilute bith parties' influence