the plan b as it were if the talks between shelley moore capito and biden didn t work, and it looks like they are approaching an impasse, then there s going to be this alternate infrastructure plan that you ve been working on with your fellow senators, democrats and republicans. give us a reality check. do you think the kapito/biden deal is essentially dead? well, look, i don t think anything is essentially dead at this moment in time though i do think time is of the essence here when it comes to a good infrastructure bill. i do think there are a number of parties out there that are talking and the white house i believe is involved in every one of those discussions, and and i think that there s a possibility here, jake, nothing nothing is for certain, you know, making legislation is a messy proposition as best, but i think there s an opportunity to get here something meaningful done in the area of infrastructure. is it going to be everything that i would want? no, is it going t
final white house readout. jake, this does come as you re seeing president biden turn to another group of bipartisan senators who are working on crafting a bill essentially a plan b basically if the talks with kapito, the former top republican negotiator, fell through, so that is a conversation we re expecting president biden to have before he leaves tomorrow morning, early attorney general morning, to go to europe, but his aides will still be working behind the scenes on what an infrastructure proposal could actually look like back here in washington while he s overseas because if you listen to chuck schumer, the senator earlier talking about what he envisioned for this, he seemed to be hinting that they could be going on a democrat-only path, that there could be an idea of doing a smaller bipartisan bill or maybe they could pass it with only democratic support because they are not going to be able to pass what they believe the country needs in this big bold way were the words that
vote for biden s agenda who has rejected calls for the president to end bipartisan negotiations. i think we can come to that compromise to where we ll find a bipartisan deal. i m very confident of that. but the clock is ticking. without manchin s on boards biden s options with the slimmest congressional majorities with infrastructure teams one pose of the $4 trillion economic agenda boyden wants passed by the end of the summer. ultimately we re look for enough of a coalition to move forward on these bold historic ideas. we don t have that at this moment, but we re working towards that. reporter: senator kapito told our democratic colleagues that she will speak to the president tomorrow. white house officials are keenly aware of the dynamics there and hear the pressure from progressives to move on but they know how much support you have from key interest parties inside your own party, nothing happens if you don t have the
they see several pathways but they see which if any can be followed through on. the white house is expecting that call between president biden and senator kapito today or tomorrow but on friday president rejected out of hand the latest republican offer and there s no signal they will offer anything else. another bipartisan group is talking at this point in time but issues that they are talking about to pay for the proposal the white house has already rejected. there s house democrats moving on one of their infrastructure proposals. the republicans right now are cool to that. the reality is if they are looking for a bipartisan path forward, where it is still hasn t come to fruition and it s something that jen psaki acknowledged in the white house briefing today. it takes time to move these things forward, to get democrats on board, to get republicans on board. ultimately we re looking to have enough of a coalition to move forward on these bold historic ideas and we we obviously do
important person in washington, d.c. to get anything legislatively done. reporter: you only have to know the chorus to country roads you don t have to know the refrain. joe biden needs one senator, not necessarily both. if he can strike a deal with senate republicans and shelly brings along nine colleagues or much more, mitch mcconnell as recently today in kentucky said he s still backing kapito s efforts to strike a bipartisan deal. so if there is a bipartisan deal to be had, joe manchin is just one of any other senators that might vote for it. but if there s not a bipartisan deal to be had, and that s the more likely option given how far apart the two sides are off. then joe manchin becomes important, because the democrats could try to pass a bill through