winning them over. he s seeing a need to differentiate himself starkly from the former president, and we re really seeing that unfold today. mia love, congresswoman, the question is, does he have the skills to pull it off? we all remember 2016 when established politicians tried to go after donald trump saying he wasn t a real republican, and they failed. you served with ron desantis in the house. does he have the skill set to walk that tight rope, to tell trump voters, i know you love him, but he can t win. i need to say that desantis has a bigger hill to climb than he thinks. the thing that people, republicans, really liked about ron desantis earlier is that he was seemingly a fighter. he was choosing battles that were big, and they liked that about him. and when trump went after him with no response, trump went
the last 24 hours, one thing has emerged as increasingly surprising but true. mccarthy walks into this meeting today with potentially more leverage than anyone in that room expected him to have. and that is because the vast majority of his conference was united around a plan to reduce spending and increase the debt ceiling. and many of them tell me that they still trust the speaker to go into that room, negotiate the best deal that he k and that s not to say that a resolution comes out of one meeting. but they say that they really do have faith in the speaker who over the course of the next several months is going to walk a really difficult tight rope between holding on to his speakership and making sure that the country doesn t default on its debt. poppy? lauren, thank you very much. we ll see what happens. i want to bring in cnn chief business correspondent christine romans. romans, the street has been a little zen about this. which is a little bit surprising. yeah. what are
negotiations s as the speaker of the house of republicans, negotiations s as the speaker of the house of republicans, he negotiations s as the speaker of the house of republicans, he has - negotiations s as the speaker of the house of republicans, he has a - negotiations s as the speaker of the j house of republicans, he has a very slim majority. if you remember back injanuary, even trying to become the speaker took a long time, because there are lots of members of his own republican party who don t like him. very much. i don t trust him. and some of them still don t. they don t actually want him to make a deal with president biden. they would see it as a betrayal. but it s a really tricky tight rope for him because polls suggest that if, let s say, america does default, the american public wouldn t necessarily blame president biden. there is one pole that suggests maybe half of the country would blame the republican party. for playing politics. and remember, president biden has sa
trying to win back those votes. so, what is mccarthy going to bring it back to them. it is a huge question, and there s the potential that is kevin mccarthy brings something back to them that is unsatisfactory-y could be in a position where, remember when he won the speakers race? if any one republican can absolutely bring a vote to remove him from the speakership. that means that he has to retain enough support from his conference and not lose more members in a way that he can maintain the gavel. so, this is a huge tight rope for him because on the one hand he has to make sure that the country does not revolt, but he wants to keep his job. i wonder if he can walk this tightrope. it is really between a rock and a hard place. joe biden is not just going to go and say, well gavin you that s not the way it works. that is part of the reason why, if you look at the chances of default and people who are actually putting money on this and injuring u.s. bonds, the fact of a default as been