helped if the president had insisted yesterday on a vote? you know, i think he did the right mix there. he explained why it was so important, and he left it to their final decision. lawmakers typically don t like being dictated to, but he explained, you know, basically you have to take your victories where you can. we can t legislate in the ideal world. we have to legislate the reality of the situation complicated by reconciliations and filibusters and people who aren t necessarily willing to compromise. when you talk about people who aren t necessarily willing to compromise, have you seen changes on that front among your colleagues? well, first i ll start with my republican colleagues. as you see, we re basically dealing in half the tent here, at the senate, who s going to work with us to get these things done, and a little over half of the house with a three-vote majority. i was pleased last night to see
home, right, we know the president had said yesterday it s not hyperbole. i m paraphrasing her, but he used that word. it s not hyperbole for him to say that majorities in the senate and the house and his presidency are really riding on this legislation. did that message get through? that s something that s been discussed the last couple weeks, but to hear the president saying that to the full democratic caucus, that felt like a different tone. i think so. i think it weighs heavily on the caucus. i think they re also starting to recognize that, look, any one of the provisions in this package, if passed alone, will be seen as landmark legislation. we have to judge it not necessarily for what s not in there, which frustrates me, too, but what is in there universal pre-k, the expansion of pell grants, expanding
from where we are at st. peter s basilica. i ve been asking diplomats recently, ambassador, and i wouldn t be surprised if you ve had similar conversations, i ask them quite directly, are they concerned about the state and the future of the u.s. political system? do they see, for instance, not just january 6th but the possible return of donald trump as a candidate, perhaps even a winning candidate for president again? when you speak to them, do they confide in genuinely worried about the state, the health of the u.s. democratic system? the short answer is indeed they do, and it s topic number one on their minds. i get the question what s the new normal and what s the aberration? when they look at us, what s the exception and what s the rule? they re just not sure how to read us anymore. what i tell them is, you know, i can t answer that, but also there s lots of continuity. you look at u.s. focus on domestic challenges, you look at
the progressive caucus say they support the framework that the president s talking about on reconciliation. i see that as a compromise. i would only suggest that you take your victories where you can, and there s a lot to be proud of with the infrastructure package. a lifetime largest expansion providing fresh drinking water and wastewater treatment that will help millions of families get safe water. a lot of that is to create jobs and expand our economy for the next century. there has been a fair amount of frustration. as you said, you were laying out what you went through of course when it came to affordable care act, obamacare, but the reality is, you tweeted yesterday, this is how the legislative process is supposed to work, compromise is how the sausage made v gets made. your colleague debbie dingle was on our air yesterday morning prior to this meeting with the president, and she said she had never seen the sausage making
nic robertson and cnn chief white house correspondent kaitlan collins joining me now. nic, if i could begin with you, the upcoming meeting between president biden and french president macron i think it is proper to describe this as some diplomatic fence mending necessary. the fact is this is a relationship that goes back more than a couple hundred years. they will remain friends. what has to happen in this meeting for biden to move beyond their public dispute about the nuclear deal? er. there was a public communications problem it was said and that s been accepted by the u.s. side. for president biden to move beyond it and for ha kmacron to emerge from this and say i can commit myself and france to strong indo-pacific relations with australia and the united