of his presidency so far. in new video just released by russian state media, you can see bide frn the white house situation room meeting with russian president vladimir putin in a video call. the meeting comes at a critical time with russia amassing tens of thousands of troops on the border with ukraine with the threat of another possible invasion looming. white house officials say president biden will be warning russia will face severe sanctions if they invade ukraine. the kremlin has signaled today s call will be lengthy but is tamping down expectations, saying they don t expect any major progress to be made. let s start at the white house this hour. jeff zeleny is there for us. are you hearing anything so far? reporter: the meeting has been under way neerply an hour or so. it started about 10:07 eastern time. we are not getting a readout of course, but we saw the very
you can see them there with the friendly greeting. we ll see how the rest of that conversation goes. at this point, they ve been speaking for about 20 minutes now. bide frn the white house, putin from his home in sochi. we ll bring you more as we find out. back in the u.s., senate majority leader chuck schumer says he s confident that democrats can pass their sweeping social safety net bill by christmas. but once again, two key democrats are skeptical they can deliver the bill to the president s desk by year s end. erica, i feel like we ve heard this story before. i was thinking the same thing, jim. cnn chief congressional correspondent manu raju joining us from capitol hill. you know that better than anyone. what is the thinking this morning? is there a real chance that democrats can get over that remaining hurd until the next two weeks? reporter: it s very slight. there s a chance but it seems highly unlikely according to multiple democrats just because of the proesz. they need