Ex-NYT Editor Fact-Checks 'The View' Hosts on Their Court-Packing Lie
Former New York Times editor Bari Weiss fact-checked Sunny Hostin’s claim on court packing on “The View” Tuesday.
“The View” co-host was talking about the addition of Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court and how her confirmation is going to alter the way the court looks.
“We all know that the Republican Party has been packing the Supreme Court for decades,” Hostin said.
“They’ve been packing the judiciary for decades. Trump has put now, three justices on the Supreme Court and just dozens and dozens of judges on the federal judiciary, so I think what we’re going to see is, perhaps, the Democrats unpacking the Supreme Court so that there is more of a balance.”
Hostin said that the “unpacking” of the Supreme Court could lead to 13 justices that would reflect the federal appeals courts.
Weiss chimed in and said that she was confused by Hostin’s comments.
“Packing the court is about adding more justices to the bench, which is something that people like AOC and Ilhan Omar are advocating for,” Weiss said.
“Packing the court doesn’t mean appointing justices that some people don’t like. I think that’s really where the debate is.”
She added that the discussion should be about whether the Democrats — if they win the 2020 election — are going to “fundamentally change” the nature of the court by adding more justices.
Weiss criticized Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden for refusing to directly answer questions about his stance on court packing.
“If elected, what I will do is I’ll put together a national commission, a bipartisan commission of scholars, constitutional scholars, Democrats, Republicans, liberals, conservatives,” Biden told “60 Minutes” on Sunday.
“I will ask them to, over 180 days, come back to me with recommendations as to how to reform the court system because it’s getting out of whack.”
Weiss pointed out that late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg opposed court packing.
Whoopi Goldberg tried to defend Hostin and said she was referring to lower courts being packed, but Hostin insisted she was talking about the Supreme Court and cited a Newsweek article that used the term.
“Republicans have been packing not only the federal judiciary, they have been packing the Supreme Court by design,” Hostin said.
“That has been the Republican plan, and in order to unpack the Supreme Court, meaning unpack the culture, unpack the values that are on the Supreme Court, in order to do that you would have to add either term limits, age limits or you would have to add justices, which would then balance the Supreme Court, which would lead to an unpacking.”
Weiss tried to jump in, but Hostin pushed back against her comments that Biden hadn’t directly answered the court-packing question.
“When a presidential nominee says that he is unwilling to answer the question, the minute after Amy Coney Barrett was confirmed last night, you had all of the most, in my view, where the energy is in the Democratic Party, Ilhan Omar, AOC, I think Ayanna Pressley were tweeting about packing the court,” Weiss countered.
“That’s a live and relevant issue and for the Democratic nominee to not answer it, I believe it’s a dodge to talk about appointing a commission … but he should have a straight answer to that just like RBG did.”
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