is the crowded gop field playing right into the former president s hands? welcome to our viewers here in the united states and around the world. i m wolf blitzer. you re in the situation room. let s get straight to the scramble to avoid a historic default on the u.s. debt. president biden and speaker mccarthy are both working the phones tonight as they try to rally support from skeptical lawmakers. cnn is covering the race to pass the agreement from every angle. the stakes right now for the american people and, indeed, the world economic situation are enormous. our correspondents are over at the white house and up on capitol hill. we re getting new details right now and a key democratic leader, congressman james clyburn, is standing by live. we ll get to him in a few moments. first to cnn white house correspondent jeremy diamond. what is the latest where you are over at the white house. reporter: this entire negotiation process was driven by the understanding this was
Appreciate your company. Coming up on cnn newsroom, an agreement in principle on the debt ceiling. Washington has a plan to avoid a catastrophic default, but details still need to be ironned out, then it has to get through congress. Also ukraines top general issues a pointed message for his soldiers, russia, and the world. And we do begin in Washington A Late Night Agreement to try to prevent a looming debt crisis. The white house and republicans have reached a deal in principle to raise the debt ceiling and cap government spending. It is meant to avert the first u. S. Default in history, which could have disastrous consequences worldwide. Heres how u. S. House speaker Kevin Mccarthy characterized the breakthrough. After weeks of negotiate az we have come to an agreement in principle. We still have a lot of work to do, but i believe this is an agreement in principle. It has historic reductions in spending and lift people out of poverty into the work force, rein in government overreach.
weekend at camp david amid the numbers. and we have chad on capitol hill and we saw you in the video chasing house speaker mccarthy. they re aimed to get bill texted today, and mccarthy says it will not be a long, thousand page bill. they re close, but they re not there yet. i think we re all tired, that doesn t mean that we re willing to take something that s not acceptable. nothing is done. all the interplay at the table makes even a short list more complex. fox was told permitting reform for energy projects is out, but mccarthy contends that s not finalized. conservatives will need major buy-ins on spending to get their vote. it s believed that liberals and conservatives will vote no. if it s going to be a $4 trillion raise we re going to need to see something on the other side of the ledger. we agreed to $1.5 for the things that we had on the ledger if. they re going to more than double that, my goodness, doesn t it seem reasonable to see where else you can make u
Announcer this is cnn breaking news. Youre live in the cnn newsroom. Im jim acosta in washington, a very late Saturday Night on Memorial Day Weekend but were here for good reason. Were here in a crucial moment on debt ceiling talks. Multiple sources tell cnn that the white house and House Republican leaders have reach an agreement in principle, we should note in principle on raising the nations debt ceiling. Just ten minutes from now House Speaker Kevin Mccarthy will address reporters were told, and then at the bottom of the hour Republican Leaders will brief their fellow colleagues in the gop conference on the outlines of this deal. The briefing comes after a phone call earlier this evening between mccarthy and President Biden, and cnns Priscilla Alvarez is at the white house for us. Priscilla and manu raju still with us up on capitol hill. Late night, guys. Priscilla, what can you tell us . Reporter jim, im hearing from a source close to negotiations yes House Speaker mccarthy have a
deal reached with kevin mccarthy to raise the nation s debt limit. here is what the president had to say. i m about to go in and call mccarthy now, make sure all the ts are cross and the is are dotted. a few on capitol hill have expressed some skepticism that the bill will have enough support to pass. today, speaker mccarthy told reporters that he is confident there will be enough votes to get through his chamber. to take you back to where we started, back to february 1. sat down with the president. i said, let s work together to raise the debt ceiling but curb the amount of spending. cut red tape. get work requirements to help people get back into work. i think this agreement frames all of that from limit, save, grow. it doesn t get everything everybody wanted. i think it s a positive bill. we did a conference call with our conference. over 95% were excited about what they see. they get the text today. look, in every single negotiation, when it comes to the debt ceilin