Harry Reid Warns Joe Biden To Play His Cards Close To His Vest On Court Expansion

By Aliza Worthington — October 16, 2020

Former Democratic Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid wanted to make sure everyone is absolutely clear about who changed the rule about no longer needing a supermajority to confirm a Supreme Court justice: it was REPUBLICANS. Furthermore, it was Republican obstructionism that led Reid to change the rule for lower court nominees (and Cabinet members) during President Obama's term to begin with. The GOP did everything in its power to prevent Obama from getting ANYTHING passed or ANYONE appointed, and that abolishing the supermajority rule was the only way to get past that.

Ayman Mohyeldin spoke with Mr. Reid, and asked if he regretted doing away with the supermajority rule, since the GOP had warned he would regret it, and Mitch McConnell used it to trigger the Nuclear Option of getting rid of it for Supreme Court Nominee Neil Gorsuch. Reid was unequivocal and unapologetic:

REID: No. Let's return to when this took place. Obama had been elected president. He was very popular. And Republicans had a big meeting in Washington, and they came away with two conclusions. Number one, he would not be re-elected, they failed at that miserably, and they would oppose everything he tried to do. They succeeded in that. So we have a very popular president. For the first time in the history of the country, they filibustered the secretary of defense, who, by the way, had been a Republican senator, Chuck Hagel from Nebraska...we had many vacancies on the DC circuit, the second most important court in this country. We couldn't fill those. We couldn't get cabinets. We had the National Labor Relations Board, and they didn't like the labor union, so they took the legs out from under the NLRB, and we couldn't even get a quorum there. So we had no choice.

And, you know, I regret it? No. I'm glad we did it. It made Obama's presidency remarkable. As a result of our changing the rules, which by the way had been changed many times in the past, we were able to get over 100 judges approved, we were able to get his cabinet officers approved. The DC Circuit. We filled that, took care of the National Labor Relations Board. But just as importantly, we were able as a result of that change I made to get the Affordable Care Act, Obamacare, approved. We were able to do the most significant reform of Wall Street in the history of the country with the Dodd/Frank legislation. We did the Lily Ledbetter legislation, which put women on more equal footing with men with their pay. We did lots of good things as a result of that rule change, and I'm glad we did it.

Remember, we had it set up so that the only way we could approve of a Supreme Court judge was with a supermajority, and the Republicans changed that. I didn't.

GOT THAT??? If the GOP wasn't so damn obstructionist, and racist, and determined to deny Pres. Obama the right to do his job and run the country, we would not be in this situation.

Then Mohyeldin asked Reid what he thought about Joe Biden's answers during the Town Hall, regarding court expansion. When pressed by moderator George Stephanopoulos about taking a clear position on it before election day, Biden said, "Yes. Depending on how they handle this."

Reid did not approve of this move.

REID: I think Senator Biden would be making a big mistake if he made public what he thinks should happen before the election. I think this is something, we need to get the election out of the way, he will be president, we'll have a Democratic Senate, a Democratic House, and I think he needs to take a look at it then, not now.