politics. i m john king in washington. thank you for sharing your day with us. in just hours, a meeting with crippling consequences if it leads to nowhere. congressional leaders head back to the white house to talk through a debt deal, but democrats already worrying prooid sounds close to caving. plus a picture of fear. new and disturbing video shows a baseball bat-wheeleding attacker. beating two staffers at a congressional office. and ron desantis nears a 2024 launch. he will enter the rain rays with infrastructure and big money, but also with deflated expectation was a months of fierce donald trump attacks. up first for us, time to get serious. debt talks are going nowhere. congressional leaders head back to the white house at 3:00 p.m. it s clear the principles enter the debt limit showdown in very different head spaces. kspeaker mccarthy seemed sour o striking a deal. team biden sounds far more optimistic about progress towards a com promiez. not exactly welcome
the house will vote to raise the debt ceiling is if the president agrees to significant spending cuts. congressman ken buck of colorado is here to join our conversation. he s a member of the house freedom caucus. thank you for coming in. the speaker has a meeting that says everybody stick together. there are some differences within the republican family over how much you want spending to be cut. one of your colleagues say this is morning we passed our plan, but we re negotiating with the democratic president. so we re going to pick up less. we have to be prepared to get less. we also have to be prepared to how to get votes on the other side. it s a slim majority. nobody wants to shut the government down. nobody wants to see that happen. and finding a way to work together, that s one of the things that the american people want from us. that s what one of your colleagues says you have never in your ten years in congress never voted to raise the debt limit. how do you vote yes this ti
it s possible, but we need significant spending cuts. we are in a fiscal crisis. we re going to default whether it s in june or ten years. this country is going to default. when you say change course, the president says it s not a negotiation over the debt ceiling, but he s negotiating over spending cuts. will you take less than what the house just passed? if that s what you have to do to get a deal. if the speaker says this is a good deal. ed and some other money, would you say i m going to take one for the team and do it? the team is america, not republican or congress. it s america. if that s what s in america s interest, i will do that. but it has to be we have to set the tone in the first year and then we ve got to move in that direction significantly in years two through five. my question is about just even the con september of the debt ceiling. you heard the former president on our air last week suggesting
i think what the speaker says to president biden right off the bat is i have to bunch of crazies in the house caucus. ken buck is one of them. i think joe biden has to recognize he was in the senate. he s a creature of congress. he understands the dynamics between the house and the senate and within a legislative party. you seem to as well. you seem to be open to some compromise. i ll svote no, but i m okay wit this. but i ll get there. is the the rest of the republicans with you? or if kevin mccarthy negotiates a deal less than what the house passed, is someone going to challenge him for his job? great question. i m not going to. i think it s the worst job. i think there will be a challenge to kevin mccarthy if he walks away from what he s doing, but he s made it clear he s not going to do that. i think president biden is going to be losing politically also if he doesn t look like he s coming to the table with a compromise. we ll see if we get a
reaffirmed that default could occur as early as june 1st. she s said time and running out. simply put, lawmakers in the white house are facing a very serious time crunch. president biden is set to depart for japan and he could leave without a deal in hand, be with staff level talks continuing. i bet the president gets involved. arlette, thank you. now to trauma the at a congressional office. a baseball bat carrying assailant attacking congressal staffers. cnn getting new very disturbing visdeo. home camera surveillance capturing a man chasing a neighbor with a bat sending her sprinting away screaming. it s the same man who police allege later made his way to the virginia office of congressman jerry conley, where he s charged now with attacking two staffers. both went to the hospital. one of them was an intern. on her first day. a top source telling cnn speaker