you re live in the cnn newsroom. i m jim acosta in washington. we re at a crucial moment in the high-stakes debt ceiling talks. we re waiting for details on a phone call that just wrapped up in the last hour between president biden and house speaker kevin mccarthy. negotiations are down to one final sticking point, safety net for social programs. leaders may have as little as eight days to prevent the u.s. from defaulting on its debt. many experts predict economic disaster if that happens. manu raju is up on capitol hill. manu, i was hoping since you were there in front of the cameras for us today that that meant i think this is probably our strongest indicator, that you were on capitol hill for us. president and kevin mccarthy spoke. at this point if the speaker were to come out and touk alk t reporters, that would be a good sign. you tell us. reporter: that s right, jim. the speaker said today he would be the one to make the announcement that there is a deal. well, he
change chang changing day by day. john fetterman and mehmet oz, their first and only debate just got underway. everett sturm pulled out of the race. quoting from his tweet announcing the decision, i am polling 3% which places democracy at risk. it s not clear what pennsylvania voters will make that have notion but it s one more thing for them to consider along with what they see from the two main candidates in race that could decide rcontrol of the senate ad perhaps congress the next two years. it s true that voters nationwide have more factors to weigh than most midterms, not just the economy or all the other domestic and foreign challenges at the moment. but things never seen before like armed civilians in camouflage lurking in polling places in pennsylvania or candidates they will only consider the outcome legitimate if they win. new reporting later on the voter intimidation as well as a conversation with a top arizona republican about the threat he sees to democracy. the
imploring washington lawmakers to hammer out a deal and raise the debt ceiling before the u.s. government runs out a cash to pay its bills. for crying outloud, do your job and stop putting everybody at risk. reporter: he says 60% of his construction s firm s revenue comes from government contracts, and they just started another project. what can a default between for your business? reporter: we re doing millions of dollars of work over the next 60 days. when will i get paid for that? as long as we don t have an economic downturn. workers are anxious for a deal. i have four people depending on me. who knows what will happen. will they have a roof over their head or food in their bellies. they don t know. reporter: tens of thousands of businesses work on government contracts. it would drive up borrowing costs, making it harder to get
boxes. so these things are being by law now. right. it s by law. they are being monitored. there is video surveillance constantly of them and the idea that, i mean, look, an area people are allowed to sit, whatever. but the idea of sort of being, you know, visibly armed, it s, you know, it seems very strange and unnecessary. it s strange, you are being nice. yeah. if i m walking it s like i go to the drugstore and i happened to carry my ar along with me, just doing regular things? no. it s obvious that you are there to make your statement about that we re here to protect the vote and only we can to it if we have an ar in our hands or whatever. i mean, again, i wish calm this stuff down for crying outloud. and good for that lady. i need to meet her sometime.
concerts. russian movies are being pulled from film festivals. russian-own restaurants are being vandalized and flooded with negative reviews. for crying outloud here, russian vodka is being poured out into the street. forgive me, but i must state the obvious. boycotting russian culture doesn t help the people of ukraine. yes, this is the worst humanitarian crisis europe has experienced in generations and passions are very high. but let s not turn this into another freedom fries moment. we need to take a step back and separate a country s culture from its political leaders. otherwise, all we re doing is ruining a 20-year-old piano prodigy s life just so we can feel that we re on the right side of history. we ll be back with my panel after this. ll be back with my after this develop their passion for learning through our grow up great initiative. and now, we re providing billions of dollars for affordable home lending programs.