29 September 2020 (posted on 27 November 2020)
The 2020 presidential candidates held fast to their positions on the recent Supreme Court vacancy during Tuesday night’s presidential debate. President Donald Trump asserted that he has the right to nominate a candidate, while former Vice President Joe Biden said that it would be better to let the people decide who gets to pick the nominee by voting in the election.
A small number of distanced attendees gathered at the Cleveland Clinic and Case Western Reserve University’s Health Education Campus to listen to the candidate’s differing views in the first of three debates on issues including the recent Supreme Court vacancy.
Chris Wallace of Fox News, the debate’s moderator, began the debate by asking why the candidates thought that their viewpoint on the Supreme Court vacancy was right and why their opponents’ viewpoints were wrong. He also asked where the candidates think a potential Justice Amy Coney Barret would take the court.
Trump responded by stating that since he won the presidential election in 2016 and that the GOP currently controls the senate, he has the right to nominate a justice for the Supreme Court. He stated that “we have plenty of time, even if we did it after the election itself.” He also said that the nominee, Barrett, was a “phenomenal nominee” and “good in every way. He claims that the Democrats would do the same thing in his situation.
Biden asserted that we should wait until after the election before nominating a potential Supreme Court justice and that people have already started to vote. He said that the Affordable Care Act is at stake if Barrett is nominated because Barrett has written that the ACA is unconstitutional.
In response to Biden’s viewpoint on the nomination process, Trump maintains that he has the right to nominate a potential justice because he is president for all four years following his inauguration.
Between unplanned exchanges on the ACA and healthcare policy that took place during the Supreme Court segment of the debate, the candidates continued to discuss their views on the Supreme Court. Biden continued to emphasise what he believes is at stake if Barrett is nominated. He said that Roe v. Wade could potentially be repealed if Trump’s nominee is appointed. Trump responded by saying that Biden does not know Barrett’s viewpoint on the case. When asked, Biden refused to answer whether or not he believes that packing the Supreme Court with more justices or ending the senate filibuster is the right thing to do.
The exchange on the Supreme Court ended with a decent into an interruption filled squabble when Biden asked Trump to “shut up, man.”
Luciano Cesta 