in desperate need of a foreign m policy win. jasmine wright is live in washington. and the vice president s first foreign trip was a bet of a disaster. now perhaps more on the line.of disaster. now perhaps more on the line. reporter: that s right. it turned what was once a low risk trip to the friendly countries of singapore and vietnam into frankly a big challenge for the vice president. because remember, even though, yes, she did go for guatemala and mexico, over a dozen calls with world leaders since her time as vice president, in a time of crisis as this is, she has not been tested on the world stage and this is what this trip presents. so she will are really two big missions when she touches down overseas. first, it will be to deliver a policy win for the biden administration really as the president and the administration itself faces questions of their competence from allies abroad. and second, it will be to really
people dead, with structures reduced to rubble, and questions about america s obligation to the devastated caribbean nation. but first, tonight s lead, onto the next. right now i m waiting to see if any of the momentum from the president s big policy win on infrastructure will hold as he approaches a wall of challenges for his white house, because the u.s. senate is going into summer recess having failed to take up voting rights legislation before the break due to republican sabotage. at the same time, the texas senate passed a very suppresssive legislation as democrats fled the state. while gop leadership, by which i mean donald trump, is pushing for more fraudulent audits of
jayapal on this. we can t call people moderate democrats who vote against childcare, paid leave, and addressing climate change. that is a democratic agenda. it is the president s agenda. and it s what we promised. reporter: we talked about the tight margins that speaker pelosi has been operating with for this entire congress. that s definitely going to be true here as we stretch into september, as we start seeing the actual machinations of this infrastructure process play out here on capitol hill. there s two political sides in this. there s strength in numbers, in that we don t want to be one of a few members tanking your party and your white house s biggest policy win over the course of the last year. that could be where some of these members end up and we could start seeing the white house applying pressure if it actually gets to that point. on the other side of it, though, the moderate democrat argument is the sooner that you get shovels in the ground on these infrastructure pr
bring in so they said that is out of the question. but look it is $100 billion of a $1 trillion plan. as you said, if there is a will there is a way. there was talks over the weekend. rob portman from ohios that put up other changes to changes for prescription drugs in terms of medicare and negotiating going on behind the scenes about that. but look, it is one piece of a larger package. and so if people want an excuse to walk away, perhaps they could use this as one. but we ve seen both sides work, you know, very hard at this for two months and president biden is going to be out there any minute talking about this bipartisan product that he wants to pass. and so, you if they let this be the hangup, this might tell you again perhaps they d rather have the talking points than the actual policy win. great reporting as always. thank you very much. and as rachel mentioned we re standing by to hear from president biden, any moment now. but also this programming note.
this process because nancy pelosi felt she had to give some of her vulnerable democrats a policy win along the way for going along with this. he should be resting easy because he knows, as hallie pointed out, there s little chance he ll be removed. it s that asterisk in the history books next to his name that clearly drives him crazy. he can t allow himself to just sit here and take the high road. i think nancy pelosi in particular, he s always had this strange political affection for her, and the fact she is driving this drives him nuts and he can t resist going out there and attacking. again, at the end of the day, i don t think he s in any real risk. even with lisa murkowski expressing a little discomfort with the process, i think mitch mcconnell is still completely in control right now. if there are a handful of senators, people who are in play, if people like susan collins in maine or cory gardner in colorado who are up for re-election and democrats will try to make this process