Fact Check: Biden Says “We should wait and see what the outcome of this election is, because that is the only way the American people get to express their view, who they elect as president and who they elect as Vice President.”
FALSE
In the debates Biden made a misleading claim.
BIDEN: “So the thing that should happen is we should wait. We should wait and see what the outcome of this election is, because that is the only way the American people get to express their view, who they elect as president and who they elect as Vice President.”
FACT: History is on the side of filling the Supreme Court vacancy now, and Joe Biden previously said the President had an obligation to name a nominee, even in an election year.
- There have been 29 prior Supreme Court vacancies in American history during a Presidential election year, and in all cases, the President nominated a Justice.
- 17 out of 19 times the Senate has confirmed the President’s Supreme Court nominee in an election year when the President’s party controls the Senate as it does today.
- In 2016, Biden said that he supported confirming a Supreme Court Justice in an election year “even a few months before a presidential election.”
- Biden in 2016: “In my view, [Senators] are required to give the nominee a hearing and a vote.”
