Biden deputy campaign chair deflects court packing question, says it's Republican distraction

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Ben Sasse: Grotesque that Biden won't answer court-packing question

Republican senator weighs in on the former vice president's refusal to answer the question of increasing the number of Supreme Court justices.

Democratic nominee Joe Biden's deputy campaign chair sparred with CNN host Jake Tapper on Sunday when she deflected questions on Biden's court packing stance and called the issue a "distraction" manufactured by Republicans.

"This is a distraction they want to throw out as a hypothetical ... to distract from the fact they are trying to ram through a nominee who, as I said, is going to change the makeup of the court against the will of the American people," Biden deputy campaign chair Kate Bedingfield told CNN's "State of the Union." 

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"[Biden] has probably answered this question 15 times over the course of the last week," Bedingfield continued. "The answer is I am not going to play Donald Trump's game. I am not going to allow the terms of this debate to shift to a hypothetical that assumes, by the way, that we, the Democrats, are going to lose here."

Democratic presidential candidate former Vice President Joe Biden speaks at a Las Vegas Drive-In campaign event at Southeast Career Technical Academy , Friday, Oct. 9, 2020, in Las Vegas. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

Biden faced criticism on Friday when he said voters don't deserve to know if he would attempt to pack the Supreme Court if he wins in November and Trump's Supreme Court nominee Judge Amy Coney Barrett is confirmed.

"We are now in the midst of the election," Bedingfield said on Sunday. "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."

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"That’s a poll. That’s not the Constitution," Tapper said.

"There is the constitutional process of advise and consent, and the American people get to have their say by voting for president, by voting for senators," Bedingfield said. "We are now 23 days away from the election."

"But it's not unconstitutional," Tapper countered.

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"Voters are being denied their constitutional right to have a say in this process," Bedingfield said.

"They elected the Senate," Tapper said, before closing out the interview by thanking Bedingfield for "deftly sidestepping" questions.

Fox News' Adam Shaw contributed to this report.