achieve a, quote, major break through. they re building up an extensive system of trenches in the south. tell us what you re seeing. yeah, there has been an extraordinary network dug possibly according to this british intelligence report the largest we ve seen since world war ii across the southern area of vap wreegsa and we ve driven along the ucrayian side of it for quite a past number of weeks here. often these are deep trenches followed by a significant sand back backed up by razor wire and these dragons teeth peer med shaped pieces of concrete form a complex set of defenses but certainly a challenge. there ll be very much in the mind of ukrainian forces as they probably in the days ahead if not already in the days behind begin the counter offensive in these areas. we simply don t know the full details of their plan to be honest, and weather is potentially playing into it. there s been an extraordinary lack of videos from ukrainian military over the past weeks they norm
i want to ask you because one of the ways that the white house, the biden people are making their argument is they re saying house republicans are voting to cut veterans benefits in the debt ceiling bill. now, to be clear there s nothing specifically in the bill that cuts anything. it talks about an overall budget count. but the va has gone out there and said this would cut veterans funding by 22%. so here is what biden said. biden on twitter wrote i hear house republicans out on tv saying they would never vote to cut veterans bets. in case there s any confusion i made a little chart to help him out. if you zoom in on the chart at the top it says did yoo cut domestic spending by 22%, if it s no you voted to protect veterans benefits. yes is what republicans did, and does this not apply to veterans benefits. now, i get that s not technically accurate, but also aren t republicans trying to
think both in the house and senate there s still a big majority of folks that still want to see a debt limit bill move that has accompanying spending cuts. and so that i think is the problem, that it s a strategy that s sort of outside the realm of the possible right now when it comes to counting the votes in both the senate and the house. i think, again, the asulftion is we know that there are some of those moderate republicans who would need to vote democrats on the discharge petition. it s a last minute fire break glass before there s a default. correct. some of them are unhappy with the proposal mforward and the pe made to folk house. i think, you know, the white house has been very clear on this, right? number one, they are not going to negotiate, and i ve talked to them recently and they seem very resolute. they re not negotiating on the default. they ll have conversations about a budget but not default.
afford to pay its debts, putting the nation at risk of a catastrophic default for the first time in the history of the united states. hoping to avoid that cnn has learned that house democrats have taken a key behind the scenes procedural step that could be used in case of fire break glass to bypass house republican leadership to force a vote to raise the debt ceiling, a clean bill. although they would need some republicans to go along with it. gyning us now republican strategist kevin madden along with cnn political commentator karen finny. just to bring people up to speed on that, there s a thing called the discharge petition. very nerdy thing, but what you can do is if 218 members of the house go and sign this petition they can force any legislation on it the floor for a cleanup and down vote. so haulm democrats are there, 210? you would need a handful of republicans to go along. correct. and the assumption here is that putting it on those 18
still a lot about that whole hideous episode we don t know about and we need to know more. despite a white house meeting setup next week top senate democrats are resisting demands from house republicans to tie any spending cuts to pay off existing debt. wolf blitzer is going to get into that and more next in the situation room. who have you got tonight? the second ranking democrat senator dick durbin joins me live tonight in the situation room. we have a lot to discuss. durbin of course the chair of the senate judiciary committee and he s pushing for new ethics legislation for the supreme court justices amid a series of scandals. i ll get the latest developments in the new debt ceiling fight as lawmakers scramble to avoid a default before the end of the month. joining me as well in the coming hour the pentagon press secretary brigadier general patrick rider. we ll discuss president biden s plans to send u.s. troops to the southern border with mexico just ahead of an expected surge in