Hours in the Oval Office Last night. The gop plan proposing 1 3 of the 1. 9 trillion democrats are looking for. It was a very Good Exchange of views. I wouldnt say we came together on a package tonight. No one expected that in a twohour meeting, but what we did agree to do is to follow up and talk further. The devil of course is in the details. Theres plenty of kidisagreemen in the dollars in the plan. Its unclear how much republicans are willing to go up and biden willing to go down but a Top White House aide suggests not much. Everything here is to help people stop suffering from the pandemic. This will lift 4 million kids out of poverty this year. We are more than willing to keep engaging, but at the end of the day what the president and Vice President wont do is compromise their values or let the American People down. Democratic leaders in the house and senate have taken the first steps towards reconciliation, a Budget Maneuver that would allow the Biden Relief Act to pass with a s
To that and how they will defend him. Weve got a lot to get to. Lets go to our colleague lauren fox on capitol hill. Good morning to you, lauren. So at least the optics were of progress in the oval office yesterday. Susan collins leading that meeting with the president. But was there substantive progress . Well, sure. I think republicans felt it was a good meeting, a Good Opportunity to speak directly with the president about what their hopes are for their own covid relief package. But, look, democrats are charging forward with their plan to use that budgetary tactic to go ahead and pass that 1. 9 trillion bill with just democratic votes. They are arguing essentially that republicans are willing, if they are willing, they are allowed to come forward and vote for this process. They are welcome to be a part of it, but they are saying they need to be bold, they need to go bold and you saw that yesterday reflected in the statement from the White House Press secretary after that meeting had
Senators. Republicans now pushing a 618 billion stimulus package, thats about a third of the size of bidens proposal and with this pretty big gap the question is, how are they going to narrow it . It was a very Good Exchange of views. I wouldnt say that we came together on a package tonight, no one expected that in a twohour meeting. But what we did agree to do is to follow up and talk further at the staff level and amongst ourselves and with the and while a number of republicans have stayed quiet on the controversy surrounding congresswoman Marjorie Taylor greene, last night the most powerful republican in the senate broke his silence in a very big way. Late last night Mitch Mcconnell released his statement writing this, loony lies and Conspiracy Theories are cancer for the Republican Party and our country. These words, a sharp contrast to the Statement Mcconnell released this morning defending House Chairwoman liz cheney who has come under fire for voting to impeach trump. Mcconnell
We need to go big. And if we waste some money now, we waste some money. Absolutely we have too many people hurting and the economy is going to sputter and weve got to get ourselves out of this mess. And this is the way we need to go right now. Let me tell you something, that man has a future in Northwest Florida politics. I like him. Or West Virginia. Mika, thats interesting. Thats from the republican governor of a state that donald trump got 69 in. Jim justice, governor of West Virginia, urging congress to go big on covid19 relief. Good morning. Welcome to morning joe. It is tuesday, february 2nd. We have columnist and Associate Editor for the Washington Post, david ignatius. Back with us, capitol hill correspondent and host of way too early, kasie hunt. And it seems more and more likely that democrats will push through the Biden Administrations nearly 2 trillion Economic Relief package with or without republicans. The president met with a group of Senate Republicans for about two hou