tonight, we re learning that joe biden and senator joe manchin have spoken to one another after manchin threw fellow democrats a curveball by declaring he s a no, a no on the biden spending bill. our chief national affairs correspondent jeff zeleny is joining us from the white house with more on this critical setback and what it means. reporter: the white house, pledging to salvage its economic agenda tonight, after west virginia senator joe manchin infuriated democrats by potentially seinking this legislation. we are going to continue to take steps, work like hell to get it done. reporter: cnn learned biden and manchin spoke by phone sunday night. but joe manchin s bombshell decision still sparking an extraordinary war of words. on west virginia radio today, the senator blamed aides to the president for a breakdown in negotiations. this is not the president, it s the staff. they put some things out that
the city s mayor whaley said they spoke by phone sunday night. she told the president he is welcome but she made it clear she expects something to be done about gun violence. i talked to him about 24 seconds, that he reached that much havoc with that type of gun. i said, i m from southern ohio. people have rifles and handguns. we re not east coast or west coast folks that say no guns at all. i said, but like i don t understand why anybody, why any citizen would need that gun. and he didn t disagree with me. maybe he was placating me, i don t know. but i appreciate he listened to me around that. we ll continue to push because i don t want other cities to go through this. reporter: cnn s ryan young has more from dayton.
i have to address what gretchen just said. it s not true the president didn t have spending cuts and plan. he signed the budget control act and offered a five year that he is trying to undue. excuse me. he offered a five-year freeze on discretionary nonsecurity spending. he does have plans on the table to. say he only wants tax cuts as the only way of solving the deficit problem is just not true. bill: if you don t cut, now where we ll be in four years. let s look at president s record. bill: 20 trillion is where we go. alan do you believe like gretchen believes that they are nowhere close. i have no idea. i don t know why john boehner is negotiating this in public. he had a private meeting with the president last week, they spoke by phone sunday night. today he gets out and says he s slow walk it, why is he doing it in public rather than dealing directly with the president and bad-mouthing the white house and saying the president is not really negotiating in good faith bas