great questions from our audience. we wanted to get into the details of what you're calling the build back better plan. before we get into that, though, i just want to know, there's been a lot of negotiating going on behind the scenes, as i'm sure you are very involved with. are you close to a done deal? >> no problems. all done. no, look, anderson, we've been -- i've probably spent well over 100 hours. this is a big deal. we have two plans. one is the infrastructure plan, roads, highway, bridges, buses, trains, et cetera. and the other one is what i call the care economy. it has a lot of money in there for environmental remediation as well as care economy. for example, you know, we want to get the economy moving but millions of women can't go to work because they don't have any child care. that kind of thing. so there's a lot of pieces in there. there's a lot that people don't understand. and by the way, all this paid for. every single penny. it's not going to raise one single cent. >> we're going to get into a lot of those details. just, though, are you close to a deal? >> i think so. look, i was a senator for 370 years. [ laughter ] i was relatively good at putting together deals. >> is this the toughest deal you've worked on? >> no. no. i think banning assault weapons is the toughest deal i worked on. and succeeded. >> you're flying to europe i think in eight days. >> yes. >> do you think you'll have a deal by the time you get on air force one in eight days? >> it's like my asking you are you sure your next show's going to be a success? >> yes. >> you're more confident than i am. look, it's all about compromise. compromise has become a dirty word. but bipartisanship and compromise still has to be possible. when i ran for the presidency i said i'm going to run for three reasons. one, to restore the soul and decency in the country. two, to build the middle class and working class so we build from the middle out. and three, to actually unite the country. and everybody's been saying, well, that's crazy. you can't do it. if we can't eventually unite this country, we're in deep trouble. >> bottom line, do you think you'll eventually get a deal? >> i do think i'll get a deal. >> all right. let's go to the audience. this is nicholas vott. he's the coordinator of the applied liberal studies program at morgan state university. he's a democrat. >> morgan state. all right, man. i've spoken there. [ cheers and applause ] >> so my wife and i have two young boys, arthur and teddy. however, the cost of child care is nearly double our mortgage. we want to have more children. but even though we earn a good salary now, child care is so expensive. so how will this new infrastructure plan help middle-class families pay for child care? >> let me ask you, do you -- how old are your kids? >> 3 1/2 and 6 months old. >> god love you. well, look, there's two pieces. there's the child care, having someone take care of your child while you are working, while you and your wife are working. under this proposal i have no one will have to pay unless you're making more than individually -- each making over 300 grand, 150,000 apiece. >> we're educators. [ laughter ] >> by the way, i'm married to one. dr. biden right here. [ cheers and applause ] so you will not have to pay more than 7% of your income for childcare. 7%. and the way we do that is we provide for the ability to have the childcare centers funded. the money won't even go -- you get 7% with the total cost. but there's another piece here. you now are qualified to be able to have a child tax credit. it used to be that when you -- you know, if you had enough money to pay significant taxes you could write off 2,000 bucks for every child you had and reduce your taxes. but if you were making 60,000 bucks a year you didn't have that much to write off, you didn't get anything. well, i call this a tax break for middle-class people. if you're making $150,000 range, right now you're in a situation where you can get if you have a child under 7, $350. if you have a child over 7, between 7 and 17, you can get $300. and you get a direct payment. the irs sends you money. >> joe manchin wants a work requirement with your enhanced tax credit for kids. is that something you would support? >> no. here's the deal. all these people are working anyway. and by the way, you know, why should somebody who's not working and has -- you know, makes -- has a million-dollar trust fund, why should they get the benefit and someone making 60 grand and not working but staying home, why should they not get anything? i don't get that. >> you're also proposing for the first time ever federal paid parental leave. and -- >> yes. that's a different issue. yeah. >> different issue. right. but this is in your proposal. how much time off would parents actually get under your proposal? because at one point you talked about 12 weeks. now there's reports it's down to maybe four weeks. >> it is down to four weeks. and the reason it's down to four weeks, i can't get 12 weeks. but look, here's the deal, guys. how many people do you know -- not a joke. or maybe yourself. have had a circumstance where you are working like a devil, you're making seven bucks an hour, 15 bucks an hour, 20 bucks an hour, and you have a child that's sick at home or you have a mother or father, husband or wife, son or daughter, and you need to stay home to help them. we're one of the few industrial countries in the world that doesn't have paid leave so that when you stay home to help that person to take care of that person you're still getting your pay. and it does not hurt the business at all. the business isn't paying for it. the federal government is paying for it. it's a little bit like as i said a tax cut for people who are not able to otherwise take care of their families. and look, i'm looking out here and a lot of you are part of that sandwich generation. you have young kids and you have aging parents. and one of the things all the polling data shows, anderson, is people are more concerned about taking care of the elderly because they don't know what to do than they are even their children. >> i want to talk about this. i want you to meet vanessa antrum from bowie, maryland. she's retired. she's a caregiver for her elderly parents. >> god love you. >> she's a democrat. vanessa, your question. >> yes, mr. president. my parents have been married for 73 years and both are dealing -- [ applause ] yes. both of them are dealing with dementia. my father, who is a veteran, is completely bedridden, and my mom is experiencing issues with walking. i have found the process for me to provide care for them in my home very hard. they have worked all their life only for me to experience a lot of red tape to provide support in a loving home environment. what is being done to support the elderly, especially for middle-class family like mine? >> well, first of all, you're a good daughter, number one. >> thank you. >> number two, i was in a situation like you where i was makining $42,000 a year as a senator at the time. although i was listed as the poorest man in the senate for many years. but i was still making more money because the senate salaries were going up. what happened was my dad got sick and was in hospice. jill and i took him home and took care of him in our house. but we were lucky because we had the ability to have -- i have a sister who's an angel and a brother who's a wonderful guy. and we all took turns in our house taking care of them. but here's the deal. right now under medicaid there are 860,000 -- i think it's 860. don't hold me to the exact number. over 800,000. who qualify for home healthc cae aid for their parents. but there's no money there. so what we do is we provide the funding for medicaid to allow you to be able to keep, if your parents have their home, keeping them in their home if you wanted or getting help in your home with home care from professionals providing -- helping you take care of them. helping you take care of them. and in many cases where you're not taking care of them in your own home and they're staying in their home you're going to be able to have the ability to have someone come in and make their meals for them. they don't have to be there 24/7. so there's a lot of things we're doing. in addition to the process we're going to be able to train up those home care workers, usually minority women, women of color, as well as immigrants, and they have the capacity to learn more as they go along to move to the point where they can become practical nurses and things like that. so it makes a lot of sense and it's cheaper, cheaper than it is to not do it. >> one of the other things that democrats are looking to do is to expand medicare to include dental, vision, and hearing as well. given all the negotiation that's are going on, will all three of those still be covered? >> that's a reach. and the reason why it's a reach, it's not -- i think it's a good idea. and it's not that costly in relative terms. especially if we allow medicare to negotiate drug prices. but here's the thing. mr. manchin is opposed to that. as is i think senator sinema -- >> opposed to all of them? >> opposed to all three. because they don't want -- he says he doesn't want to further burden medicare so that -- because it will run out of its ability to maintain itself in the next number of years. there's ways to fix that. but not interested in that part either. but look, joe's not a bad guy. he's a friend. and he's always the end of the day come around and voted. but here's the point. we're in a situation now where if you are in a circumstance that you're not able to provide -- let me cut to the chase. i'm taking too long. one of the things we're able to do in the meantime is the most expensive of these things would be dental. okay? now, we're talking about -- i don't have a deal on it it yet. maybe getting an $800 voucher from medicare for dental work that you may need. and the hearing is a very important thing because as chrysten sinema, who supports this points out, hearing is directly related to dementia. when you can't hear, you have a problem. and it impacts on dementia. so we're able to -- and it's cheaper to be able to take care of hearing. but i think i've been able to take care of that without changing medicare because what's happening is now you have these hearing aid companies, you no longer are going to have to go to the doctor and spend five grand and get an appointment. you can go by walgreen's and by over-the-counter hearing aids. a harder one, though, is we haven't gotten a consensus yet on how to deal with seeing, glasses. but that's -- so it's not done yet is the answer. >> all right. i want to get into the question. and this is ben frederick. ben is a realtor, lifelong resident of baltimore. he's an independent. serves on the maryland multihousing association. >> by the way, ben, the bidens all hail from baltimore beginning in 1850. i don't know how the hell they kicked me out. but -- >> ben, what's your question? >> a study shows the top 5% of income earners pay 60% of the income taxes in this country. i hear you repeatedly say that the wealthy are not paying their fair share of income taxes. what is the percentage of income that you believe is fair? >> well, i think what's fair is that the present tax code, the highest tax rate is 35%. number one. okay? number two, you're in a circumstance where corporate america is not paying their fair share. and i come from the corporate state of the world, delaware. more corporations in delaware than every other state in the union combined. okay? now, here's the deal, though. you have 55 corporations, for example, in the united states of america making over $40 billion, don't pay a cent. not a single little red cent. now, i don't care -- i'm a capitalist. i hope you can be a millionaire or billionaire. but at least pay your fair share. chip in a little bit. >> let me follow up. because kyrsten sinema who you pented, senator sinema, is opposed to any tax rate hikes for corporations and for high earners. speaker pelosi suggested today she could accept that. the question is, a, would you accept that? no rate hikes, tax rate hikes for corporations or high earners. and if so, how would you pay for this plan otherwise? >> because you don't have to -- look, here's the deal. the tax rate, the corporate tax rate was 35 point -- 37%. barack and i thought it should come down. we thought it should come down to 28%. in the process it came down to 21% under trump. which even the corporate leaders, and you know if you're in real estate, major real estate, ask them. they know they should be paying a little more than 21% because the idea that if you're a schoolteacher and a firefighter you're paying at a higher tax rate than they are as a percentage of your taxes. but here's the deal. i believe that we can pay for this whole thing, i have it written on a card here but i won't bore you with the detail. but for example, if you in fact made sure that you paid a minimum 15%, minimum 15% if you're paying nothing, that's over almost $400 billion over ten years. >> so you would be willing to go along with what senator sinema and it seems like speaker pelosi is willing to consider, no tax hike for corporations or for high earning individuals? >> here's what i'm willing to do. i'm willing to make sure that we pay for everything without anyone making less than $400,000 paying a single cent more in taxes. that's my objective. and so there's ways to do that. for example, you covered it on your show. the minimum international tax at 15%. >> but no actual rate hikes? >> no. i don't think we're going to be able to get the -- look, when you're in the united states senate and you're president of the united states and you have 50 democrats, every one is a president. [ laughter ] every single one. so you've got to figure things out. but where i am is i'm hearing now, i'm turn on the news and i'll hear that biden's caved on such -- look, biden's a simple proposition. biden's going to get all the elements of these two bills have profound impact on economic growth, reduce not create inflation, don't add a penny to the debt, as well as grow the economy. 17 nobel lawureates in economic sent me a letter recently saying my proposals would actually reduce inflation, diminish inflation. but here's the point. the point of it all is i'm prepared -- i can't think of anything that was consequential and changing the circumstance for the middle class and working class in america that came as a consequence of a single piece of legislation. i've got a portrait of roosevelt in my office. okay? social security is not anything like it is today when he passed it. it evolved. it moved. it grew. so i'm prepared to do the things that can get done now, that can begin to change the lives of ordinary americans to give them a fighting chance and come back and try to get others later. >> let's talk about another one of those things. this is sondra gutman, an english professor at loyola university, also a democrat. sondra, what's your question? >> and by the way, i've got another english professor who teaches writing here. >> thank you for taking my question, mr. president. we've heard in the news that the proposal for two years of free community college may be cut from your economic package. an educated citizenry is absolutely crucial to solving complex problems like climate change -- [ applause ] -- and the systematic inequities in this country. we hope that this is not cut from the package, but if it is what can you do to ensure that all americans can get the education that they need to face these issues? >> first of all, professor, you made a very profound point. i'm not being sarcastic. and that is -- and jill use az slightly different phrase. any country that outeducates us will outcompete us. any country that outeducates us will outcompete us. you have the vast majority of the 37 major countries in the world, economies. we rank 35 in our investment in education. we're in a situation where if you think about it what caused us to move ahead and dominate the 20th century, in the late 1900s -- early 1900s, late 1890s we came up with 12 years of free education. that was revolutionary at the time. i mean, seriously. now, if we were sitting down today and saying we've got to put together an education system, raise your hand if anybody thinks 12 years is enough to compete in the 21st century. so that's what i propose is free child -- free school for every 3 and 4-year-old in america. no matter what their background. all the data shows that no matter what home they come from they increase exponentially their prospects of succeeding all the way through 12 years of school. you know all the statistics. the statistics go that if you come from a home where there's no books in the home and a single mom or a single dad they're not well educated, they don't talk a lot. the kid from the average middle-class home versus that home will go to school having heard 1 million more words spoken than the child who didn't. a gigantic disadvantage. >> mr. president, the question was on community college -- >> no, i -- >> -- which was a big campaign promise that you made. you talked about that a lot. >> yeah. and i'm going to get it done. and if i don't i'll be sleeping alone for a long time. [ laughter ] but here's the deal. so far mr. manchin and one other person has indicated they will not support free community college. so what i think we can get done is we can significantly increase the amount of money by 500 bucks payment for pell grants. and pell grants are available and they can apply for up to 30% of the cost of community college an and/or, and/or college, help tuition. so it's not going to get us there. it's not going to get us the whole thing. but it is a start. i'm convinced, absolutely positively convinced that we're going to be able -- and by the way, we have in the legislation money for community colleges that deal with -- dealing with apprenticeships, dealing with teaching people particular skills that are not -- will not get you a two-year degree but will teach you a skill. so i think we can get all of that done this time out. but i promise you, i guarantee you we're going to get free community college in the next several years, across the board. >> what was that conversation when you realized you weren't going to be able to get it in this bill at this time and you had dinner with dr. biden that night? what was that conversation like? how'd you break that news? >> well, the white house has a lot of bedrooms. [ laughter ] and she went like this. down the hall. no, look, it really makes a gigantic difference. and think of this. you have more countries in the world with having providing -- providing professional education beyond 12 years. we rank like i think it's -- don't hold me to the number. i think it's 16 or 17 in the world. the united states of america, for god's sake. this is about putting us in the game. >> this is john meche. he's a doctoral candidate at morgan state university. an independent. >> where are you? >> morgan state. >> all these morgan men. i've spoken there a couple of times. and by the way, the guy who runs my operation is a -- anyway. i keep talking about delaware state but they keep saying about morgan state. >> morgan state. president biden, i had so much faith in your election win, but based on history the bipartisan efforts of the democratic party are held hostage by rogue moderates and republicans. why not do like the republicans and usher through the democratic agenda? >> well, two reasons. if you notice, the republicans haven't passed a single solitary thing. zero. so usher through their agenda. their agenda right now is just stop biden. i shouldn't make it so personal. stop my administration. that's what the agenda is. it's much easier to stop something than to start something. and look, what we did is when i wrote -- i'm going to back up just a second. i apologize. i wrote -- i personally during the campaign, before i got elected, i wrote the infrastructure bill relating to what we do to highways and all that kind of thing, hard data. and i wrote what they call -- what's now called the care economy piece and has a gigantic piece of environmental pieces in it too. and i went before the joint session of congress and i laid out exactly what i was for. so i made it clear what i was for. initially what happened was i got no support for anything from our republican friends. and then they said maybe we can work out a bipartisan deal on infrastructure. and we did. we worked on it. it didn't give me everything i wanted. didn't have as much money in there for the environment. although it has tens of billions of dollars in there. but didn't have what i wanted in it. but we made a bipartisan deal. now what's coming along is this reconciliation, a fancy word for the other pieces, that have the childcare pieces, have the economy that relates to allowing people to -- women to go back to work. it has about $450 billion for environmental remediation and so on. and that's the one that is the issue. >> let me ask you, just getting to his question, we've talked a lot about senator manchin and senator sinema. you seem relatively confident you can kind of get senator manchin on board. there's a lot of democrats in the house and senate who are confused about where senator sinema actually stands on things. and i know she's been negotiating directly with you and the white house. what is your read on her? and obviously, you need her to remain positive in your direction. so i don't know what you're going to say. but what is your read on her? do you know where she stands? >> first of all, she's smart as the devil, number one. number two, she's very supportive of the environmental agenda in my legislation. very supportive. she's supportive of almost all of the things i mentioned relating to everything from family care to all those issues. where she's not supportive is she says she will not raise a single penny in taxes on the corporate side and on wealthy people, period. so that's where it sort of breaks down. there's a few other issues it breaks down on. but what we're trying to do is reach a point here where i'm able to present to the senate, able to vote on, and the house a serious, serious piece of legislation that changes the dynamic for working-class folks in america and middle-class folks and begins to have the very wealthy and corporations just begin to pay their fair share. not a lot. how we get there, we're down to four or five issues where i'm not going to negotiate on national television, as you might guess. >> we'd be interested in hearing them if you want. >> i know. but all kidding aside, i think we can get there. >> you talked about the environmental piece. you said senator sinema is on board with that. certainly senator manchin is not. it gets to our next question. this is from kobe kong. he's originally from anaheim, california. he's sophomore class president at johns hopkins university. a democrat. kobe, what's your question? >> mr. president. >> one of the largest issues that people have trouble comprehending the severity of is climate change. many legislators and politicians today are lenient as they won't have to live with the future effects. without the legislative support for the climate aspects of your budget proposal and the earth rapidly approaching the paris agreement's 1.5 degrees limit, what other backup plans do you have to ensure a future for the next generations? >> mr. president, you got it right. the existential threat to humanity is climate change. and when president trump pulled out of the paris accord, which when i was with the obama administration we helped negotiate, the agreement was that we could not -- if we reached beyond 1.5 degrees celsius increase in temperature we're gone. not a joke. not a joke. and so we decided that -- he pulled out. first thing i committed to do is rejoin that accord. number one. but number two. number two, what you have to do is look at multiple ways in which we can deal with climate. i'm going off to cop 26 in scotland in i guess it's two weeks or a week. i'm losing track of time. and i'm presenting a commitment to the world that we will in fact get to net zero emissions on electric power by 2035 and net zero emissions across the board by 2050 or before. but we have to do so much between now and 2030 to demonstrate what we're going to do. let me give you a couple of examples. >> let me just follow up very quickly on that. the key climate provision that was in the build back better plan as you call it, the clean electricity performance program, that's been dropped now from the spending bill -- >> no, it hasn't. >> it has not. but senator manchin is opposed to that. >> he's opposed to it. but here's the deal. that is only one of well over, well over a trillion dollars' worth of expenditures for climate change. it's $150 billion. it's important. and what it says is that if in fact a utility doesn't pull back and continue to reduce the amount of carbon that they emit that what will happen is they will end up paying a penalty. and so there's a penalty incurred. joe manchin's argument is look, we still have coal in my state, you're going to eliminate it eventually, we know it's going away, we know it's going to be gone, but don't rush it so fast that my people don't have anything to do. i think that's not what we should be doing. but the fact of the matter is we can take that 150 billion, add it to the 320 billion that's in the law now that he's prepared to support for tax incentives. tax incentives to have people act in a way that they're going to be able to do the things that they need to do. for example, if you've got windows that are -- the wind's blowing through you get an incentive to put new windows in your home. help get it paid. we're going to significantly reduce the amount, the cost of solar panels on your roof. we're going to continually -- for example, there's a new battery technology being -- i went out in silicon valley, there's a battery that's about that wide and about that thick. if you have solar power, you put that in your basement and the sun doesn't shine for seven days you still have all the power you need. >> but the concession has been agreed to for senator manchin for coal in his state. is that true? >> nothing has been formally agreed to. the negotiation is i've been saying to joe, look, i'll take -- if we don't do it in terms of the electric grid piece what we'll do is give me that $150 billion. i'm going to add it to be able to do other things that allow me to do other things that don't directly affect the electric grid in the way that there's a penalty but allow me to spend the way to set new technologies in place. for example, we can save significant amounts of money and as a consequence of that significant amounts of energy if in fact we are able to put the high tension wires underground. it costs a hell of a lot more to do it. it creates real good jobs. it creates a hell of a lot more to do it. but in fact, it would do a lot to keep things from happening that are dangerous. half the forest fires out west are those towers coming down, setting fires, et cetera. so there's a lot of things joe is open to my convincing him that i can use it to increase environmental progress without it being that particular deal. >> we're going to take a quick break. when we get back, we've got a lot more questions for president biden. 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[ cheers and applause ] and welcome back. we are live at a cnn town hall event in baltimore, maryland with president joe biden. so before we get to our next question i want to just bring up the current labor market shortages. millions of jobs are unfilled. businesses are struggling to meet demand. is there anything you can do to either encourage people to go back to work or make jobs more attractive that they want to go back to work? is there a role for the federal government? >> first of all, we've created more jobs in the first eight months of my administration than any president in american history. total number of jobs created. but the problem for the people not going back to work is twofold. number one, they're reluctant to go back to work because they're afraid of covid, many of them. so they don't want to go back and they don't want to be exposed to either the customers because they're not required to wear masks, they're not required to have shots, or they don't want to go back because they're not sure the people waiting on them at the table or the people coming up in the food market, so a lot of it has to do with covid. number one. number two -- that's why we were able to go from when i first got elected, when i first was elected, there were only 2 million people had covid shots in the united states of america, had the vaccine. now we've got 190 million because i went out and bought everything i could do and buy in sight and it worked. but here's the deal. the second thing, the second thing that's happened, anderson, is that people are now using this as an opportunity to say wait a minute, do i want to go back to that $7 an hour job? i won't name the particular restaurant chain. but they found out when they couldn't hire anybody, when they found out they started to pay 20 bucks an hour, everybody wanted to go back to work. not a joke. so what you see is wangz are actually up for those who are working because for the first time in a long time employees are able to bargain. you're the boss. you want me to work for you? how are you going to pay me? i'm not being facetious. the third thing that's out there is there's a circumstance that exists where people are really worried about what they're going to do -- i mean, how can i say this? how many people do you know, and maybe some in this audience, who because of what you've been through, loss of a husband, brother, wyche, mother, father, son, whatever, or you've had something that's really impacted you with covid, that you really find yourself just down? i mean, just down. so there's a lot of people who are just down. they're not sure how to get back in the game. they're not sure whether they want to get back in the game. think of this. if you're graduating from morgan state, okay? [ cheers and applause ] well, guess what? we didn't have those great dances the last four years you had when -- i'm not joking. graduating from high school. you don't have your prom. you don't have your graduation. you don't have the thing -- all the things that matter to people that go into things they look forward to. so a lot of it has to do with us getting back on our feet and getting back on our feet in terms of our attitudes about what the future looks like for us. >> what do you say to someone who's down? because there's a lot of people watching tonight who are. >> well, i tell you what. there's plenty of help. look, being down, having some problem in terms of needing some advice, if you have a broken spirit it's no different than a broken arm. you shouldn't be ashamed of it it. you should seek the help. there's a lot of people that can help. but i really mean it. i don't -- i'm not saying that's the whole problem. i'm saying it is an element in terms of attitude about people, what they wanted. look, how often i get asked the question, what's christmas going to be like? how about thanksgiving? is it going to be okay? what's going to happen? will i be able to buy gifts for my kids? there's a lot of anxiety people have. >> i want to ask a question along the lines of concern about christmas and holidays and the supply chain. anna hirsh is here, a student at loyola university who's orange hi from connecticut. she's a democrat. anna, what's your question? >> hi, anna. >> president biden, growing up in a small town, i have been surrounded by small business owners including my mom, who owns her own interior design business. with the current supply chain crisis small businesses are in jeopardy of not being able to get products that they need because priority is given to large businesses. does your administration have any policies or plans in place to aid the current supply chain problem and/or to help small businesses that are affected by this? >> yes on both. but you have it exactly right. we have a significant supply chain problem. in the obama-biden administration all american business -- it made sense. it was just on time. you wanted to make sure you didn't waste any money and/or time between producing whatever you're producing and having it done. you didn't. so that's how you saved money. you didn't buy the material six months ahead of time and then keep it in your inventory. it was on time. now that's a big problem. people can't do it. they want to get out ahead. what i've recently done, and people said we doubted we could get it done. i was able to go to -- 40% of all products coming into the united states of america on the west coast go through los angeles and -- what am i doing here? >> is it long beach? >> long beach. thank you. and i know both the mayors. so i went to them and i said what can we do? so i met with -- and they're privately owned, these ports. these two. so i met with the businesspeople. i met with all their major customers, the walmarts of the world and all the rest. there are like 70 ships waiting out there unable to get unloaded. and because the longshoremen don't always get along with the business folks in there, i have a relationship with them, and i brought them together and i said you've got to be open 24/7. no port there was open five days a week 40 hours a week. 24/7. they've all agreed to it. they've agreed to it. >> would you consider the national guard to help with the supply chain issue? >> yes. absolutely. positively. i will do that. but in addition to that, what you've got to do is you've got to get these ships in and unloaded. and one of the things in my infrastructure plan, there's $16 billion for port expansion. we have to be able to move things along. because what's happening is a product your mother may need for interior design in terms of drapery or colors or something that is imported from somewhere else, well, guess what. a lot of these places, particularly in south asia, are closing down because of covid. the businesses are just flat closing. >> so would you consider the national guard for trucking, for -- >> yes. >> -- because there's a lot of problems with not enough truck drivers right now. >> that's why what we're doing now -- >> do you have a timetable for that? >> well, of a timetable -- first of all, i want to get the ports up and running and get the railroads and the rail heads and the trucks in port ready to move because i've gotten walmart and others to say we're going to move stuff off of the port into our warehouses. >> but are you actually talking about having national guardsmen and women driving trucks? >> the answer is yes, if we can't move -- increase the number of truckers, which we're in the process of doing. if we did it this moment. but the whole point is we've got to get the small business as well because the big guys are in trouble and a lot of the product that your mother makes, the product -- the things she does in her interior design building, the material, she buys from the larger outfits. i assume. i don't know that. but my whole point is small businesses need the help badly. small businesses make up 60% of all the revenue coming from business out there. >> i want to bring in linda harris. she's from elk ridge, maryland. she's a software product manager, democrat. lind avenue, what's your question? >> hey, president biden. >> hey. >> my middle-class family of four lives on a pretty tight budget. my well husband and i work full-time at well-paying jobs but we still struggle some months to make the ends meet with rising gas prices and utility prices and grocery prices. we're feeling our discretionary income get squeezed and reduced. what plans does the administration have to help ease this kind of current crunch we're feeling? >> well, there's a number of things that have already been done. and it's hard -- and people don't think about it. the american rescue plan has provided for an awful lot. the $1.9 billion we passed right after i got elected. so what you got is you got that $1,400 check in the mail. you got a lot of things that helped ameliorate some of the concerns and costs because we knew what we were coming into. we knew we had inherited the wind and things were going to get worse before they got better. but in terms of being able to have what my dad used to say, a little breathing room -- my dad busted his neck. he didn't have a good-paying job. my dad was a well-read high sch school-educated guy who thought his greatest sin in the world was he didn't get to go to college. but my dad was one of those guys who worked like hell, come home for dinner and then he'd go back and finish up work and close the shop. and the whole point of it was that all we want to give, all he'd talk about is joey, all i need is just a little breathing room. a little space. a little space. >> let me ask you about that just in terms of inflation because you had told us at a town hall, i think it was in july, that with near-term inflation the "wall street journal" recently talked to 67 financial experts who said they saw high inflation going all the way -- or deep into 2022. do you think it's going to last for a while? >> i don't think so. i don't think it will last. depending what we do. if we stay exactly where we are, yes. if we don't make these investments, yes. >> what about gas prices? >> gas prices relate to a foreign policy initiative that is about something that goes beyond the cost of gas. we're about $3.30 a gallon most places now when it was down in the single digits -- i mean single digits. dollar plus. and that's because of the supply being withheld by opec. and so there's a lot of negotiation that is -- there's a lot of middle eastern folks want to talk to me. i'm not sure i'm going to talk to them. but the point is it's about gas production. there's things we can do the in meantime, though. >> do you have a timeline for gas prices, when you think they may start coming down? >> my guess is you'll start to see gas prices come down as we get by going into winter -- i mean, excuse me, into next year, 2022. i don't see anything that's going to happen in the meantime that's going to significantly reduce gas prices. but for example, for natural gas to heat your homes as winter's coming there's a lot of -- what people don't realize, we put in billions of dollars into what we call lie heap. lie heap is the provision where you're able to get funding from the federal government based upon your need to heat your home and it's subsidized in a significant way. and there's billions of dollars we passed in the legislation i got passed in march of this year. because we anticipated that would be a problem as well. but the answer ultimately is, ultimately meaning the next three or four years, is investing in renewable energy. what i was able to do -- by the way, i really -- i'm not being -- i mean, i'm being literal when i say this. what i was able to do when i ran, and you remember, anderson, because i was on your show a couple times, and the issue was whether or not i could ever get the labor unions to support my environmental programs. and i went out and i went to the ibw and as well to the auto workers and i laid out my plan. they fully embraced it. why? and i spent time at general motors and other companies. and i got general motors -- i didn't get them. general motors decided after a long time spent talking to me, they were suing california because they had a higher mileage standard. they dropped the suit and agreed that they would be 50% electric vehicles by 2030. by 2030. and now you have all three, all three major manufacturers saying the same thing. so what will happen is you're going to see a dramatic drop, a dramatic drop in what's going to happen in terms of gas prices as we go into the next two or three years. even if we're not able to break the monopoly price they're keeping it up because -- anyway. but i don't -- i must tell you, don't have a near-term answer. there's two things i could do. i could go in the petroleum reserve and take out and probably reduce the price of gas maybe 18 cents or so a gallon. it's still going to be above 3 bucks. and one of the things that i refuse to have happen because i didn't want anybody -- i made a commitment if you pass the stuff i'm talking about not one single penny in tax would go against anybody making less than 400 grand. and so if you notice these highway bills are not paid for by gas tax. they're paid for by direct expenditures in other it's going to be hard. it's going to be hard. the possibility to be able to bring it down depends on little bit on saudi arabia and a few other things that are in the offing. >> let me take a quick break. we'll have more from president joe biden. they may have lost an eye, or their hearing, or their youthful good looks. but there's a lot of things these remarkable dogs haven't lost... like their ability to lick, wag, and love with the best of them. join subaru in helping underdogs find a loving home and celebrate all dogs during our third annual national make a dog's day. i always protect my voice. it's how i make my living. and you and i make a country with our voices. your vote is your voice. but more than ever, our freedom to vote is under attack. so please: call congress. tell them to pass the freedom to vote act. to protect our ability to have our say on the issues that matter most. so, let's pass the freedom to vote act and protect all our voices. ♪ (peaceful music) ♪ ♪ ♪ (battle sounds from phone) ♪ ♪ (battle sounds stop) ♪ ♪ (dragon roar from phone) ♪ ♪ i brought in ensure max protein, with thirty grams of protein. those who tried me felt more energy in just two weeks! 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( abbot sonic ) ♪ and welcome back to our cnn town hall with president joe biden. got a lot more questions to get to. i want to introduce professor and social worker at the university of maryland baltimore. she's an independent and mother of two young boys. going to be talking about covid. what's your question? >> thank you for taking my question, president. when will the vaccines for young children be ready? and how accessible will they be once released? >> i believe, and i want to make it clear, unlike past administrations, science will dictate this. i'm not telling anyone -- no. i really mean it. but i do ask my covid team what the expectations are. the expectations are it will be ready in the near term, meaning weeks, not months and months. okay? that's number one. number two, there are over 800,000 sites right now that exist in america where you can go get a vaccine. and you're going to be able to do that with your children, particularly we're going to try to work it out to deal with childcare centers, make it available there as well as your pediatricians and the docs and finding places where you can do it some places are talking about doing it at churches on the weekend and that kind of thing. so, there will be plenty of places to be able to get the vaccine when, if and when, it is approved. and it's likely to be approved -- i spent a lot of time with the team on these things. it's likely to be approved and whether it's moderna or whether it's pfizer or whether it's j&j, it's going to be approved and much smaller dose, basically the same dose but a smaller dose. and they're doing a lot of tests on it right now. and those of you who have children or brothers or sisters who are between, you know, in that age category above 12, get the vaccine for them. get the vaccine. get it now. >> let me ask you -- mr. president, mr. president -- >> by the way, there's two famous guys in this audience i just noticed. ben cardin. and chris van hollen. and the mayor. holy mack roll. this is a busman's holiday for you guys. thank you. >> mr. president, let me ask you a followup about that. as many as one in three emergency responders in some cities like chicago, los angeles, right here in baltimore, are refusing to comply with city vaccine mandates. i'm wondering where you stand on that. should police officers, emergency responders be mandated to get vaccines? and if not, should they be stay at home or let go? >> yes and yes. [ applause ]. >> by the way, by the way, i waited until july to talk about mandating because i tried everything else possible. the mandates are working. all this stuff about people leaving and people getting it, you have everyone from united airlines to spirit, all these airlines we're not going to get -- all 96, 97% of the people have gotten the vaccine. all the talk about all these folks who are going to leave the military if they're mandated. not true. you got about a 90 some percent vaccination rate. so the idea is that -- look, two things that concern me, one are those who just try to make this a political issue. freedom. i have the freedom to kill you with my covid. no, come on. freedom. number one. number two, the second one is that, you know, the gross misinformation that's out there. like what they're saying about my buddy colin powell, he was my friend, passed away. colin powell was vaccinate and he still died. well, he knew he had serious underlying conditions and it would be difficult -- he clearly would have been gone earlier had he not gotten the vaccine, had he not gotten the shots. but my generic point is there's so much misinformation. you know what i find fascinating, i turn on fox to find out how popular i am, but -- >> how are you doing there? >> i'm doing very well. i think i'm at 3% favorable. but all kidding aside, one of the things i find, do you realize they mandate vaccinations? >> at fox headquarters? >> yeah. i find that mildly fascinating. mildly fascinating. >> i want to bring in -- >> thaddeus price from -- [ cheers and applause ]. >> this is thaddeus price from randalls town, maryland, program coordinators after morgan state university. >> good evening, mr. president. you received overwhelming support from the black community. and rightfully so. rightfully so. but now many of us are disheartened. >> yep. >> as we watch a congress fail to support police reform. we watch our voting rights vanish before our very eyes. mr. president, my question is what will you do over the next three years to rectify these atrocities, secure our democracy, and ensure that freedoms and liberties that all americans should be entitled to. [ cheers and applause ]. >> first of all, you stated the proposition accurately, in my view. i did get overwhelming support from african-american community, only folks in maryland understand delaware is the eighth largest black percent of population. it's been the support of my source. only folks that helped me more than black men is black women. i'll tell you what my greatest regret is, my greatest regret is i have these three major pieces of legislation that will change the circumstances for working class folks and african-americans as well that i've been busting my neck trying to pass. but what is done has prevent med from getting deeply up to my ears in dealing with police brutality, dealing with the whole notion of what are we going to do about voting rights? it's the greatest assault on voting rights in the history of the united states, for real. since the civil war. >> yes, sir. >> and you know, for example, when i was in -- when i was chairman of the judiciary committee, i thought i had done something really important and i was able to get passed and extended the voting rights act for 25 years and get everyone on that committee, including the southern senator from south carolina and others to vote for it. i thought we had moved. the point i'm making is this, we're at a terrible place right now. and so, when this gets done, and in the meantime here is what i've done, i have the authority to deal with federal law enforcement. so, federal law enforcement we've issued mandates, no choke holds, number one. make sure that we're going to be able to do -- have no no knock warrants. in a position we're going to be able to see to it that we are able to go look at it and we're doing it in four stis right nows patterns of abuse and patterns of misconduct of police departments. making sure that we have access to police records in terms of what's happening. there's a lot i've been able to do by executive order in essence. >> let me ask on voting rights, if it is as important to you as you say, i think there's a lot of democrats who look at the filibuster and would like to see it changed, even if it's just on this one case. why do you oppose that? >> by the way, i think they make a very good point. here is the deal, if, in fact, i get myself into at this moment the debate on the filibuster, i lose at least three votes right now to get what i have to get done on the economic side of the equation, foreign policy side of the equation. so, what i have said -- you're shaking your head no, but let me tell you something, jack, it's the truth. number one. number two, number two, what i have proposed in the meantime is it used to be the filibuster the way it worked -- and we have ten times as many -- more than that, times the filibuster has been used since 1978, it used to be you had to stand on the floor and exhaust everything you had and when you gave up the floor and someone else sought the floor, they had to talk until they finished. you're only allowed to do it a second time. after that, it's over. you vote. someone moves for the vote. i propose we bring that back now, immediately. but i also think we're going to have to move to the point where we fundamental alter the filibuster. the idea that, for example, my republican friends say that we're going to default on the national debt because they're going to filibuster that and we need ten republicans to support us is the most bizarre thing ever heard. i think you're going to see -- if it gets pulled again you'll see an awful lot of democrats being ready to say not me. i'm not doing that again. we're going to end the filibuster. but it still is difficult to end the filibuster beyond that. that's another issue. >> but are you saying once you get this current agenda passed on spending and social programs, that you would be open to fundamentally altering the filibuster or doing away with it? >> well, that remains to be seen exactly what that means in terms of fundamentally altering it, whether or not we just end the filibuster straight up. there are certain things that are just sacred rights. one is the sacred obligation that we never are going to reanything on a debt. only nation in the world we have never, ever, renigged on a single debt. >> voting rights is consequential. >> voting rights, just so i'm clear, though, you would entertain the notion of doing away with the filibuster on that one issue, is that correct? >> and maybe more. >> and maybe other issues. >> okay. just a short time ago the full house voted to hold former trump ally steve bannon, current trump ally as well, in criminal contempt of congress. a week ago you said the department of justice should prosecute those who defied subpoenas from the january 6th committee. was that appropriate for you to weigh in on? >> no. the way i said it was not appropriate. i said -- they asked me would i -- do i think that they should be prosecuted for denying the -- for not showing up at the committee. and i said, yes. now, that -- when i made a commitment, one of the things i was committed to do when i ran was reestablish the reputation and integrity of the justice department. it has become the most -- it was corrupted under the last administration. i should have chose my words more wisely. i did not, have not and will not pick up the phone and call the attorney general and tell him what he should or should not do in terms of he should prosecute. but, i answered the question honestly and i think that anyone who does not respond to that kind of question from the legitimate committee and the house of representatives of the united states senate should be held accountable. so that's as much as i can say without coming looking like i'm telling -- i have yet to talk to the attorney general about anything. >> the attorney general put out a statement saying they would make the decision on their own. >> and they will. i guarantee that. >> you decided not to exert executive privilege to shield the former president in the house's investigation into january 6th. why? >> well, again, i'm leaving that to them to tell me what -- and i didn't -- it's not a blanket i will not release the information. it's i'm asking them to take a look at what is legitimate, what would be legitimately position that future presidents authority would be compromised by that and what is. i don't think there's much legitimacy in the claim. so that's being looked at right now. >> we're going to take another quick break. we'll have more with president joe biden. 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and why did your stance on allowing immigrants suddenly revert to trump-era policies? >> well, those are legitimate questions. number one, the remain in mexico policy, which i oppose, the court said i had to maintain it. so we're repealing it. that's one of the reasons why we haven't changed it. we have made a gigantic change. there were over 5,000 children, children, in the custody of the border patrol. they're now 504. we are making more progress than you think. and we have a circumstance where one of the things that is going to bear fruit, i believe, is i put together a program when i was a senator and the vice president helping initiate it now where we provide for funding to change the circumstances on the ground in the countries in central america. for example, you're in a circumstance where, you know, people don't just sit around their table and say i have a great idea. let's sell everything we have, give it to coyote, let them take us across the border, drop us in a desert, place they don't want us, won't that be fun? people do it because they're desperate. they're desperate. and what i've been trying to do and i'm trying to do in this legislation as well is get funding so we have funding for immigration officers to be able to hear cases immediately of whether or not they justify having asylum granted to them. >> mr. president -- >> we don't have that. >> you have kept in place under public health authority known as title 42. >> yes. >> a trump-era policy, which allows immediate or very quick return to people who crossed over the border based on covid protocols. >> yes. that is -- we maintained that because of the extent of the -- of the continued extent of covid in those countries from which people are coming. it's very, very high. and so we maintained the policy. we are not sending back children. we send back adults and we send back large families. but we don't send back children in that circumstance. and so, that's why i have a proposal to provide for over a billion doses of covid vaccine to the rest of the world, including a significant portion to latin and central america. >> do you have plans to visit the southern border? >> i've been there before and i haven't -- i mean, i know it well. i guess i should go down. but the whole point of it is i haven't had a whole hell of a lot of time to get down. i've been spending time going around looking at the $900 billion damage done by hurricanes and floods and weather and traveling around the world. but, i plan on -- now, my wife jill has been down. she's been on both sides of the river. she's seen the circumstances there. she's looked into those places. you notice you're not seeing a lot of pictures of kids lying on top of one another with, you know, with looks like tarps on top of them. we've been able to deal with that. we've been able to significantly increase funding through the hhs, health and human services, to provide shelter for these kids and people. but, there's much more to be done. and i realize -- i think it is a thing that concerns me the most about being able to get control of it. because i got to number one, get enough funding to provide for immediate determination of whether or not someone that is, in fact, legitimately claiming a right to stay in the country because of legitimate fears. and purely for economic reasons to get in line but not get in the country. so what we're doing is bringing a lot of folks who are coming in and doing an ankle bracelets instead of people being sent back depending on whether or not their claim appears to be legitimate. >> let me ask you about two other issues in the news. less than two weeks minneapolis voters will decide whether or not to replace the police department in minneapolis with what they would call a public safety department. what do you think of this? >> depends what they mean by that. look, i grew up in a neighborhood -- >> they said the public safety department would be -- have a more comprehensive public health approach to the delivery of functions, of public safety and could includes licensed peace officers, police officers. >> could. i think you need police officers. i think we need police officers to protect us. i think they have to be under certain circumstances but i think we have to provide for them more opportunities -- i call for more money for police to go to community policing as well as dealing with additional help for psychologists and others working with the police departments. >> you never been a fan of defunding police. >> no, i haven't. never supported it. but i've been a fan of controlling police and making sure they're held accountable. they're two different issues. one of the things -- look, when we had community policing initially in the late '90s, violent crimes dropped significantly, significantly. and the reason it did is because we had significant number of police. what i did, i eliminated the lea act and put in place the community policing. what that meant, this will take a second but it's important. what that meant if your city had authorized police force of 100 people, you could not take the money for community policing and fire 50 people and rehire 50 so now the federal government is paying for half and you didn't increase the number of police. you had to increase the number of police beyond your. so i remember my son beau was a chief law enforcement officer of the state of delaware as attorney general of the state of delaware. and he used to do what i did. he would go down the east side, where you can find the best basketball in the city, you know every town has those places. and he would sit there on the bench with my son, my grandson hunter, who is now 16, who was then 5, sit on the bench and get to know these guys. and he would walk over and he would knock on the window of a police car that was sitting there, the cop not getting out of the car and say get the hell out of the car and meet these folks. no. i'll give you one example, what we required initially was every police -- every community policeman, there were two assigned -- assigned in groups of two. they had to know the neighborhood. i remember getting a call, as you've been to delaware, go down that road as you're heading down to the station, martin luther king boulevard. there's a woman who lived in one of those apartments in the second floor that sort of had an outcroppings, victorian kind of two-story place. and but the cops made sure they had -- she had their phone number. so, when a drug deal was going down, she pick up the phone and call and say to that police officer with the cell phone that the drug deal is going down. knowing that she would never be fingered. knowing that she would never be the one told it happened. so crime began to drop. they had to know who the local liquor store. they had to know and walk in and shake hands with the local minister. that's community policing. >> let me try to get in a couple questions from our audience. new york city is removing statue of thomas jefferson from its legislative chamber because of his history as a slave holder. do you support that decision? >> well, i think that's up to the locality to decide what they want to do on that. look, there's a lot of -- there's a lot of people who have no social redeeming value, historically. and there's others who have made serious mistakes in terms of what exists now in terms of what we should be talking about. but have done an awful lot. and so the very thing, for example, i just spoke at the martin luther king dedication and i pointed out that we're right across from the lincoln memorial. well, you know -- and you talked about -- and then the jefferson memorial. and what are we doing? i talked about how they said we're unique in all the world nation founded on idea. we hold these truths to be self evident, all men and women are created eqequal. it's pretty big idea that somebody wrote that down and got the rest of the country to agree to it. so it depends. it depends. >> let me bring in glenn, student at loyola university originally from connecticut. he's republican. >> where in connecticut? >> granite. >> china just tested a hypersonic missile. what will you do to keep up with them militarily and can you vow to protect taiwan. >> yes and yes. we are militarily china, russia and the rest of the world knows we have the most powerful military in history of the world. don't worry about whether we're -- they're going to be more powerful, but you do have to worry about is whether or not they're going to engage in activities put them in a position where they may make a serious mistake. and so i have had -- i have spoken and spent more time with xi jinping than any other world leader has. that's why you hear people saying biden wants to start a new cold war with china. i don't want a cold war with china. i want china to understand that we are not going to step back and change any of our views. >> are you saying that the united states would come to taiwan's defense? >> if china attacked. >> yes, we have a commitment to do that. >> we have to take another quick break. we have more questions from the audience. we'll be right back. that's why they customize your car insurance, so you only pay for what you need. 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[ cheers and applause ]. and welcome back. we are live with president joe biden here in the city of baltimore. just in the few minutes we have left, the country lost, and i know you lost somebody who you consider a close friend, general colin powell. what's something about him that people didn't know? >> he had enormous integrity. they knew that. but he's one of the few serious, serious players i've dealt with over these years. when he made a mistake, he acknowledges it. he said, i acknowledge -- i was wrong. >> that's rare these days. >> it's been rare -- it's rare in human nature for someone in a powerful position to say they are wrong. they are wrong. i made a mistake. that's a hard thing to do. and i've had to do it about a half a dozen times lately. but all kidding aside, and the second thing about him was, he had a lot of serious -- real compassion. you know, his -- well, i'll tell you afterwards. because we only have a few minutes. he and i went out the the secret service racetrack. he had a brand new corvette, his family bought, his kids bought him and i have a '67 327 presidents 350 and we raced. we raced. i'm serious. it was on jay leno. check it out. jay leno. he is a hell of a guy. >> who won? >> i won only because he was worried i was going to crash into him. because i don't have traction. i was burning rubber the whole way out there. i could see him saying whoa. >> my final question is you famously at the signing ceremony, i think it was, for obamacare, you famously leaned in to the then president and -- i'm not going to say a direct quote, but off mic you said this is a big f'ing deal. and i'm wondering the build back better plan, is it a bigger f'ing deal than that? >> 60 seconds. we got in the car to go over to the department of education after we did that. >> oh, i thought you were talking about drag racing still. >> no, no. he got in the car and he was laughing like hell. he said what's so damn funny. he told me. i whispered in his ear. i looked to where it's going. and this is a big deal. and i didn't realize the guy behind me was lip reading. he could see it. i'm serious. the answer is, yes, this is bigger. no, it is bigger because not because what he did wasn't enormous, he broke the ice enormous. but part of what i have in here is we also increased access to the affordable care act and we reduced the price an average of 60 bucks a month for anyone in the affordable care act plus on top of that we have another $300 billion of healthcare in it. so i would say this is a bigger darn deal. >> mr. president, thank you very much. appreciate your time. thank you very much. [ cheers and applause ]. >> we want to thank our audience for being here and for their questions. we also want to thank baltimore for hosting us. "cuomo primetime" starts right now. ♪ all right. our thanks to anderson and president biden to pick up on his last comment, and paraphrase, how big a deal was this town hall for president biden? i'm chris cuomo. welcome to a compact edition of primetime following the main ent our cnn town hall just wrapping up. you see it right there. president biden made news tonight on his stalled agenda, some good insight into how negotiations are going. and also where he stands on the fate of the filibuster. he now says he thinks we're going to have to move to the point where we fundamentally alter it to get some legislation passed like voting rights and raising the debt ceiling. but can't embrace reform now because he would lose at least three democratic votes. now that is farther than he's ever gone before. the question is, does he really go all the way? in the meantime, he insisted he will be able to get his own party behind him on his bold, domestic agenda. let's bring in better minds for analysis. dana bash. what's your take? >> a lot of news. a lot of news. things we have been trying to gather in reporting because a lot of the discussions have been very opaque. well, the president just confirmed a lot of source reporting and also revealed some new information, like the fact that the way that they are going to pay for whatever deal this is, we'll have no tax increases because kyrsten sinema refuses not just to raise taxes on corporations but also on individuals. that's a pretty big deal. and then also on the fact that he confirmed there will be no free community college, that he's shrinking the size or the scope of paid family leave. he wanted 12. he said i can only get 4. just more broadly, he's very clear and clear eyed about the reality of his situation. democrats control congress but he said -- and of course the white house, but the most telling moment, chris, was when he said, when you have a 50/50 senate, every senator can be president and is president. and you certainly have a couple of them who are taking that liberty they have and using it to the nth degree. >> paul, dana is right. there is news. that matters to us. to people watching who are voters, it's not about what we now know that we didn't know and incremental moves, it's feel. and what do you think biden put out there in terms of command, the ability to get something done and his sense of urgency about where things are in america, problems and solutions? >> yeah. i think he showed -- he was commanding and yet comfortable. this was not a presidency in crisis. this didn't look like a guy whose poll numbers have dropped, which they have. there's this right wing myth that oh he's out of it and he's not really running things. that shattered tonight. i think it's very smart of his staff to put him on this and in this format. he showed whit. he was able to laugh at himself and his own situation. i've been in the senate 370 years. oh, when i told jill we couldn't get free community college i had to sleep down the hall. from a stylistic point of view, i think his team is probably very, very happy right now. and from a substantive point of view he seemed -- dana is right, he seemed to have the balance right. he's optimistic and yet realistic and each of those things he looks like he has to lose on frankly and give up. he was already talking about other ways to get to them. other ways to get around them. >> yeah. >> so i just thought this was a guy truly in command of the presidency and i think that really disappoints a lot of my republican friends who have been trying to convince us that somehow he was out of it and didn't ask for anybody to inject bleach or sunshine where the sun don't shine. pretty good performance. >> dana, on the plus side, he seemed to have unusually good command of the data. he was spitting a lot of facts tonight about numbers. in fact, to my checking to this point i'm sure daniel dale and all the better minds look it up, the only thing i heard him say tonight that factually i think is wrong will mean nothing to you guys but means a lot to me, i don't believe they made a 1967 corvette without pausi traction. it's where power goes to both of the rear tires. they both spin at the same time. >> i hear you speaking and saying words but i have no idea what it means. >> such a gear head, dana. >> he said the reason he won the race was because -- >> i'm kidding. i don't know what any of that means. >> i don't know that they made a '67 vette without. but other than that, i thought that -- i don't know how many voters will respond to that. >> that is definitely checkable. but listen, i think you're absolutely -- you're right that he has been very engaged of late. he's been engaged for more than that. but, really going back and forth. he has been on the phone with senator manchin, with senator sinema, in a meeting in person with the key members of the house not to mention the leadership because that's how this is getting done. there has been criticism that i've heard, i'm sure you both have heard as well, especially from what we call the front liners here in washington, the moderate house democrats who are the most vulnerable in the mid term election, criticism that he hasn't been in a room with all sides of the democratic party on this. and what i have been told by people who are part of these negotiations is that that might not be happening but he's doing it in the way that he learned as a senator for 375 years or whatever he said. that seemed to be on display tonight. and the big goal that they had tonight at the white house was to turn all of this washington gobly gook into english and into policies that people can digest and understand and appreciate. that's the question ab

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