here s the deal. joe biden cannot afford a sequel of the opaque delay process where senators sinema and manchin basically move the ball and the goal posts, or slowed it down, when it was a fight about ending. he cannot afford a backup plan or a strategy where he just hopes a handful of senate republicans might make up for any democratic votes that he loses, either of the names i mentioned, while we re heading into the political fire of the midterms. what s interesting here is that who is in charge of this process right now? because first the democratic party and at large, americans went with someone with a lot of experience, which isn t always popular in politics but across 50 years in government. joe biden has lived through this core process from his youngest days as a senator. you know his first-ever vote for a supreme court nominee? it was all the way back we checked in 1975 for john paul
to go to the people that have been the most challenging and you have to get a clear commitment early on and make them stick to it and that s not an easy thing to do but you don t wait around. i have a feeling that these two senators that were extremely unhelpful on some critical issues might want to make themselves well in terms of their relationship within the democratic caucus. and i think i feel good about the possibility of that working but biden has to make that his top priority. maya? well, i agree with the senator, and, look, it is imperative biden make it his top priority for these very reasons and counting, ari, because the reality is it s clear manchin and sinema voted for many of the black women we ve seen on the short list to be judges, that s a good thing. they should be praised for it, reminded of it and they should be reminded of the high qualification for these
it sounds like 1.5 trillion is your number? if we have a competitive tax code from a non-competitive that doesn t help the working person done in 2013? if that s where it is, shouldn t you be look being at what does it take now to meet the urgent needs that we have that we haven t already met. so joe manchin told democrats what he wanted and they just didn t listen. they were saying sinema and manchin should tell us what they want. apparently joe manchin did. chuck schumer knew that was manchin s number. in late july they both signed a letter obtained by politico that made clear manchin s number was $1.5 trillion. now here we are. we re on the brink of the president s agenda blowing up all because of his own party. okay? so let s get to it, the folks who are experts on all of this. there are they are in the thick of it.
well, apparently joe manchin did. chuck schumer knew that was manchin s number. in late july they both signed a letter obtained by politico that made clear manchin s number was 1.5 tril $1.5 trillion. and here we are on the brink of the president s agenda blowing up all because of his own party. let s get to folks who are experts on all of this. joining me now cnn s chief white house correspondent kaitlan collins and cnn s congressional correspondent ryan nobles. good evening to both of you, pins and needles. i want to get to the capitol first. so ryan, that means you. we re almost into friday and there has been no vote. house speaker nancy pelosi just sent out a new letter. so talk to me about it. and, yeah, don, that letter isn t really offering us much clarity onto where things are heading here tonight. i talked to three different sources familiar with their