Seven republicans will take the stage at the president ial primary stage tonight. Will any of them leave a winner . Who will take on the frontrunner most effectively and how do they do that when the frontrunner is skipping the whole thing . Released by north korea. A u. S. Army soldier is back in america after two months in north korean custody. New information about private Travis Harris and why he was expelled and turned over. Happening now, senator bob menendez making his appearance in court on Bribery Charges and the legal reason why he may be reluctant to step down despite growing calls for his resignation. Im john berman with kate bolduan and sara sidner. This is cnn news central. Developing for you this morning, released by north korea, travis king, the u. S. Army private who crossed into north korea two manages ago is now back in american custody. He had been held by north korea since july, but this morning they abruptly announced they were expelling him. Orrin lieberman is at
the dear colleague letter from speaker johnson. tell us what you know about this agreement. we ve got a lot of numbers here. yes, symone. a lot of numbers. a little bit of a discrepancy and what we re hearing from republican leader, speaker johnson and democratic leaders. you mentioned we have that dear colleague letter that gives us the first sense of these top line members. you know, one point 59 trillion for fiscal year 2024, which republicans say allots 886 billion dollars in defense and 704 billion in non-defense. now, democrats are saying that they ve secured more than 772 billion in non defense spending. so, this is getting a little in the weeds here. but the difference is a side card dam deal that is a 69 billion dollars, that was negotiated as part of that speaker mccarthy, biden deal. and so, that is actually sticking around, explaining
that didn t come through. romney will win. what makes you believe that? the lord told me. reporter: pat robertson, a key pounder of the conservative christian movement who never shied away from expressing his views no matter how controversial they might be. thoughts of his family of course. a conservative revolt paralyzing the house of representatives as speaker kevin mccarthy struggles to win over hard line members of his own party. we will speak to a member of the house freedom caucus next. and later a researcher and scientist is about to resurface after living underwater for 100 days. so cool. he will join us live from under the sea.
information, i think that it would be naive to think that this would weaken putin s support. thanks. and back here the white house and republican leaders are scrambling to line up enough votes to pass the compromise debt ceiling bill that president biden and kevin mccarthy agreed to. they face a clock ticking down to january 5, the new estimated date when the government will be unable to pay all of its bills in full. even before that happens, mccarthy faces a hitch on the powerful house rules committee, at least two hard line members are maneuvering to block the bill in committee when it meets later today before the bill even goes to the house floor. and if it does make it to a floor vote, passage is far from a sure thing. jeremy diamond has more from the white house. i never say i m confident what the congress will do, but i feel good about it. reporter: with just one week until the u.s. runs out of money, the white house and leaders are racing to get the
good evening. reporter: that s right. he s going to meet with speaker of the house kevin mccarthy and other key players here at the white house next week. even if the group can agree to a deal in the room, and that s not looking likely, there s no guarantee mccarthy can sell that deal to hard line members of his own party. whether you pay the debt or not doesn t have a damn thing to do with what your budget is. reporter: with the clock ticking once again on a possible u.s. debt default, president biden criticized what he calls maga republicans for holding the country s debt hostage. there s no way they can pass the budget, zero. reporter: mr. biden also blamed that same group for putting pressure on house speaker kevin mccarthy. i think he s an honest man, and the maga republicans have put him in a position where in order to stay speaker, he s agreed to things that maybe he believes but are just extreme.