♪ ♪ it's happening tonight. florida governor ron desantis will make it official. he's set to launch his presidential bid. ahead, new details on how he plans to beat former president trump. so we just got word that house speaker kevin mccarthy will hold a press conference any minute. so what news will he bring from the debt ceiling negotiations? do they have a deal? have talks collapsed? stand by for news. are you still using your sister's ex-boyfriend's parents' netflix password? it's about to cost you. ahead, what the company says about the coming crackdown. this is "cnn news central." ♪ ♪ ♪ seven hours from now, we are going to hear a presidential announcement that has been months in the making, but there is no stage, no huge rally being

prepared as florida governor ron desantis is going to officially announce he's running for president tonight. desantis, instead, is opting for an intimate twitter conversation with billionaire owner elon musk. the event will be audio only, and promises a live, unscripted q and a session. right now polling shows the republican governor donald trump wants endorsed poses the greatest primary threat to the current gop front-runner. desantis' decision to take this virtual stage tonight, one of the latest attacks being hurled, of course, from trump's team. cnn reporter steve contorno is leading off the hour. what do we know about desantis and how he's crafting this announcement because it is unusual, to say the least. >> it is, it is, sarah and so far they're being very coy about the details for tonight's event, but here's what we know so far, sources have told us that

desantis is expected to announce formally during this twitter conversation that he will be a candidate for president of the united states. this is months in the making. he's spent most of the spring touring the country on a book tour, giving -- giving this poll see rollout and an agenda for him to run on and now it will be official that he will be challenging donald trump for supremacy of the republican party going forward. last night his wife, casey desantis teased this coming announcement with this video showing her husband about to walk out on the stage. >> but is it worth the fight? do i have the courage? is it worth the sacrifice? america has been worth it every single time. >> now obviously, this is not a conventional way it announce a campaign, but desantis has said he is not going to have a conventional campaign, and it is

also a controversial choice. elon musk's stewardship of twitter has been full of criticisms of how he has operated and he has embraced conspiracy theories and the far right. however, desantis has tried to carry favor with the conservative influencers that have embraced the new twitter, and he will use them to sort of build influence to take on donald trump. he will need a lot of money to go after the former president and following today's announcement, he is holding a fund-raiser this week in miami where his donors have been told it's time to start dialing for dollars. already he has $ 100 million in accounts and donald trump is a well-funded candidates and between his various super pacs supporting him and his campaign he's raised $100 million and we will have a long, expensive fight between these two republican heavy weights for the nomination starting tonight.

>> steve contorno, thank you so much and a quick note as we watch the growing gop field and cnn announcing the cnn presidential town hall will be in iowa with candidate nikki haley and cnn anchor and chief washington correspondent jake tapper will moderate that and that is sunday at 8:00 p.m. eastern. kate? >> leading up to this moment with governor desantis. he's been busy at home and in the last two months, desantis signed into law a six-week abortion ban. the law prohibits doctors from knowingly performing abortions. and he signed legislation that would loosen gun regulations in the state allowing gun owners to carry a concealed firearm in public without a permit. certain training requirements associated with gun ownership are also going to end along with this in july. >> you don't need a permission slip from the government to be able to exercise your

constitutional rights. >> desantis also signed a bill that eliminated unanimous jury decisions for the death penalty. now only eight out of 12 jurors are needed to recommend a death sentence. no other state has a threshold on that and in the weeks it to him announcing for president, desantis approved a bill banning tiktok on all government devices and also approveded a crackdown on immigration and that includes a possible five-year prison sentence or a $5,000 fine for someone here illegally and new restrictions on transgender people in florida. lgbtq advocates call that bill an all-out attack on freedom. here's what governor desantis called it. >> we are going to remain a refuge of sanity and a citadel of normalcy, and kids should have an upbringing that reflects that. >> all of this in just the last two months and it could be the

record that we see him starting to run on as of today. john? >> as we said, just in, we learned that house speaker kevin mccarthy has announced a press conference that will take place any minute with news on the debt ceiling negotiations and this comes as the u.s. is days away from defaulting and you can see live pictures of the setup right there and let's get right to manu raju, and what are you hearing about what the speaker is going to say? >> expected to reiterate exactly what he's been demanding behind closed doors which is calling on the white house to agree to spending cuts and below this year's level. the white house has not been willing to set that far and what the president believed they compromised a freeze and the government spending and they've tried to negotiate on a whole other range of issues as part of their conditions to raise the debt ceiling and the democrats have tried to offer their preferred ideas, as well, but the speaker has indicated to me, publicly yesterday that he will

only agree to one concession and that is to raise the national debt limit. no other priorities whatsoever and that position has wrangled democrats and wrangled the white house which believes that they need to have some of their priorities as well in order to get democratic support out of the house and through the united states senate which is controlled by democrats. just moments ago i caught up with kevin mccarthy's top negotiator in the room. patrick mchenry who defended the republican approach in refusal to offering concessions and indicated that he believes that the white house badly miscalculated in their initial position that they would not negotiate with republicans. >> the predicate to get this out of the house is that we have to cut spending. that unlocks the rest of the negotiations, the white house team understands that. i understand that's heartburn for them and their strategy presumed that we could not raise

the debt ceiling. we did. we raised it out of the house and they're stuck in the senate and can't get anywhere. >> why not offer a single policy concession. >> they want to raise taxes at a time when we have revenue at an all-time high in real terms and percentage terms since world war ii. what we have also is the largest spending in american history and record deficits. so that's not a revenue problem. this is a spending problem. >> and it seems increasingly unlikely that any deal that can be reached can be drafted into legislative text, passed through the house and senate and signed into law before the potential default date of june 1st given the procedures that they have to go through and it is also just the fact that they'll have to count votes and get there if they're even able to get a deal to begin with and the republican conference as well as the democratic caucus are pushing respective leaders to hold the line and to not give in which is also adding a lot of pressure

inside the room and raising questions about whether they can actually avoid falling off the cliff. >> so as of now, the position from the republican party remains give us what we want or default? >> it is -- that's one way to put it. they are saying they have raised the debt ceiling through legislation that they passed. they say they have the leverage going forward and they say that the only concession that they're willing to give is to actually have the votes to raise the debt ceiling, give them what they want which is spending cuts. so if there's any change in that posture, we'll see, but mccarthy knows, john, if he gives up too much, he'll have support in order to reach any deal with the president. >> manu raju we'll continue to have you chase members as this conference looms. sarah? today marks one year since

one of the deadliest school shootings in united states history. on may 24, 2022, a gunman opened fire at robb elementary skchool in uvalde, texas, killing 19 children and two teaches. t texas will hold a moment of silence next hour and it is lowering the flags to half-staff. president biden is calling for congressional action to address gun violence. cnn's shimon prokupecz is in uvalde with us. shimon, you've been covering the story from the start. you have not let up trying to get answers for families. do they have what they need now? have they gotten the answers they wanted? >> no, not yet, sarah. i don't think we're even close to the families having what they wanted. you know, at this hour last year, just a year ago they were inside the school behind me celebrating and it was the last

day of school, kids were getting awards. it was a day of celebration, parents were here and they left their kids to continue celebrating the last day. they were all having a good time and in just about an hour their lives would be changed forever. and in many ways things have not gotten better and when you say and ask about do the parents have the answers that they want? no. they're still fighting to this moment for accountability, for answers and trying to understand exactly how this failure, this law enforcement failure here occurred. obviously wanting to know how this individual was able to walk so easily inside this school and kill their kids. so, no, they do not yet have those answers, but today is really all about for them to try and remember their kids and try and have some sense of unity. that's what this community really needs right now is unity, and of course, accountability.

>> shimon, can you give us a sense of what is happening there behind you? we see people standing around and how the parents are doing. they will never have closure, everyone understands that, but how are they faring one year after this happened? >> yeah. no, they will never have closure and it's not helped by all of the issues that they continually face from officials across the state. behind me, many of the community members are showing up and dropping off flowers and there's a memorial. we saw family members of lexi rubio. she's one of the girls who died here last year. her parents came to lay some flowers. we actually spoke to her mother for our one-hour special that aired just this sunday talking about how she wants to build a legacy for her daughter, and part of that legacy -- legacy is accountability. take a listen.

>> lexi deserved to have been here and forged her own path and made a difference in this world the way that she wanted to. that was taken from her. so i just feel like it's my job as her mom to make sure she can still do that and she can. she's more than just a victim, and if there's change that comes as a result of this, well i'd like to think that she had a part in that. >> these same shootings that occur everywhere now. you always see the body cam the next day. we went straight in and didn't delay. >> it's because of this that they say that, right? >> it's because of this. what they do and how they speak has changed because of what happened in uvalde, texas. >> so that's the state senator talking about how law enforcement is supposed to go in, the sound of gun fire, go towards the shooter and rescue

people who may be in rooms where mass shootings are occurring. that didn't immediately happen in this situation, and so he feels that because of what happened here law enforcement has taken a different position now. they're more aggressive. they're reminded by what happened here and making sure this doesn't happen again and for kim rubio and that family it's about trying to change the gun laws and they're still fighting for that and they still have a long fight ahead of them. >> they certainly do. shimon, thank you to you and your team for sticking with this and doing so much work for the families that they desperately need. we appreciate it from uvalde, texas. kate? coming up for us, it started with an arrest at a virginia preschool. police detained a man for trespassing on school grounds, but it was what was found in his truck that is causing concern and we'll have details coming up. another travel advisory for florida, the warning that the nation's largest lgbtq advocacy group is sending to people

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according to court documents the suspect told investigators he intended to, quote, kill the president if necessary in order to overthrow the government and put himself in power. south carolina's legislature has approved a bill that will ban most abortions in the state, a ban after six weeks of pregnancy. this is despite the efforts of five women state senators, a bipartisan group who tried to block it from happening. their effort has failed. in an interview with cnn this morning, one of those lawmakers said, quote, we're putting women in a southeast in a total bind. if you don't have money to fly or a lot of money and time for gas to go all of the way up the east coast then, you know, you're just in trouble. the human rights campaign has joined the naacp now in warning people about traveling to the state of florida. the advocacy group said recent measures signed into law by governor ron desantis are hostile to the lgbtq community.

they point to bills targeting health care and gender-affirming care for minors. john? virginia police arrested a man with multiple weapons in his car outside a preschool. fairfax county police showed a photo of the confiscated weapons including an ak-47. athena jones joins us. what are you learning about this. >> >> hi, john. it's good to know this man was apprehended. they arrested a 32-year-old man from florida. his name is eric sandow. fairfax county police say he was trespassing at this preschool in mclean, virginia, just outside of d.c. he was not armed at the time he was stopped by police, but he then told police that he was making his way to the cia. they detained him. they executed a search warrant on his vehicle and that is when they found those weapon, an ak-47, a handgun and a whole bunch of ammunition. we should note, he was not far

from his intended target of the cia as he told police. he was only about a mile away from that preschool, dolley madison preschool is only about a mile away from the cia headquarters has a long driveway, but bottom line, it's very, very disturbing here. we have learned that this man was -- we got a statement from the school that says that he was tress p trespassing on the presbyterian church and dolley madison. he was asking in order to use the restroom. the staff denied him access and at no point did he enter the building and we are awaiting a statement from the cia, but this is certainly concerning news given all of the violence we seem to see almost on a weekly basis when it comes to mass shootings. john? >> yeah. very concerning. athena, please keep us posted. thanks very much. kate? >> today, two hearings are set

to get under way in the civil trial between the families of gabby petito and brian e laundr. the couple made headlines when they disappeared in a cross country trip together. brian laundrie returned to his home in florida without gabby. her family reported her missing on september 11th, days later, laundrie disappeared. on september 19th authorities found petito's remains in wyoming where the couple had previously been camping and laundrie was nameded a person of interest and was eventually found dead at a florida campground. nearly two years later petito's parents are suing for emotional distress claiming laundrie's parents knew he had murdered gabby. cnn legal analyst joey jackson is here for more on this, what the big issue is in this civil lawsuit at least right now is this letter that brian laundrie's mother wrote to him. on the envelope of the letter, it says burn after reading and

no one has seen the letter. the petitos want to see the letter and here's what they say in the court filing. it says the letter in question written by roberta laundrie references bringing a shove toll help bury a body and baking a cake with a shiv in it should brian laundrie go to prison. all of this back and forth and where they're headed into this that is the heat of this, how critical is this letter when you look at this lawsuit? >> kate, good morning. very critical. we know the trial is now postponed until next year. it was originally going to start this year, but there's a lot to do. before you have a trial there need to be a lot of things that are in doubt like the parameters of the case, what does the discovery look like, meaning information that the attorneys have to evaluate to prove their respective cases, right? so today's hearings are twofold. one, you mentioned that it's about this letter. this letter is a subject of

significance, why? this letter is about intentional inflexion of, mobile distress. parents, you knew. you knew our daughter was dead and you had the attorney put out this letter giving the indication that you hope she's okay and you hope she comes back. how dare you? do you know the strain and mental stress that causes. to your point, the relevance of the letter. how would that be relevant? if you have a letter that is produced in discovery which demonstrates that the mother knew and was writing her son with respect to how to dispose, we don't know what the letter says. >> right. >> but potentially how to dispose of the body. what? so that is right there, in the event the letter says that information that you knew. you made us suffer. you humiliated us and now it's your time to pay up. so it's very significant, whether or not this letter has contents, and we get to see it, evaluate it, review it and whether or not indeed it would show that she knew that as the

mom of brian laundrie that she was dead and yet put out that statement anyway. >> laundrie's -- laundrie's parents say this letter was written before gabby disappeared and it had nothing to do with it and that is why it is part of this back and forth. gabby petito and brian laundrie are dead. is this lawsuit and is this legal action petito's parents are taking, is this the only legal avenue as the way they view it for getting any justice for her death? >> i do see it as significant in that regard. of course, it's civil and brian laundrie took his own life and he would be the only responsin party for gabby petito's death and the family wants answers and even in this lawsuit, civil, they're suing and you get those answers through the exchange of information. we know that her attorneys really foiled the freedom of information law and the fbi's investigation so they can get at exactly what happened, but i

think it's critical to know what role brian laundrie played in that death and what role the parents, if any, played in that death. >> again, civil, not criminal. what's the bar here for what the petitos need to prove? >> ultimately, kate, when the matter goes forward and the open question is whether this letter is a part of that. >> right. >> the question becomes not beyond a reasonable doubt, but what we call a preponderance of the evidence. is it more likely than not that you knew, right? you knew that our daughter was dead yet you put out this statement, you inflamed our emotions and gave us false hope and that is terrible that you did that is what they are asserting and as a result you engaged in intentional inflexion of emotional distress and by preponderance of the evidence and the second issue is whether the attorney can himself, right? the one who represented brian laundrie, whether he himself the

family is embroiled in the lawsuit and we'll hear in the hearing whether that's dismissed and it's only as to the parties. >> good to see you, joey. thanks for coming in. >> always. sarah? >> in mere minutes, speaker mccarthy speaks to reporters on capitol hill on the debt impasse. cnn will bring it to you live. you're looking at live pictures here as reporters wait to hear from him and we'll ask congressman mccaul what he expects to hear as we wait for mccarthy to come out. dermatolog s and their families, neutrogena® fofor people with skin. whenen migraine strikes, you're faced with a choice. ride it out with the tradeoffs of treating? or push through the pain and symptoms? with ubrelvy, there's another tion. one dose works fast to e. treat it anytime, anhere without worrying where you are or if it's too late do not take with strong cyp3 inhibitors.

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♪ ♪ welcome back to "cnn news central." one of the top stories we're tracking today. the field expands, florida governor ron desantis is getting in the race officially. a spokesperson for the governor tells cnn desantis will make the official announcement today in a conversation with twitter owner elon musk. >> we are waiting to hear from house speaker kevin mccarthy. he just announced that he will hold a news conference on debt ceiling negotiations. the u.s. is days away from defaulting on its debt if congress does not raise that ceiling. you're looking at live pictures now and people milling about to hear from the house speaker. with us now is the chairman of the house foreign affairs committee and michael mccaul.

thank you for joining us. you know things we don't, what's house speaker mccarthy going to say right now? >> well, he's going to say we're still ney gotiating in good fai. there's a one-on-one meeting with the speaker and the president to try to work this out. we have a june 1st deadline. we're going to stay up here as long as it takes to get that done. i think one thing is clear, we can't default on our full faith and credit in the united states and it's sending markets into a tailspin. we think in the house we came up with a very responsible plan to raise the debt ceiling, but do so responsibly with meaningful cuts and spending. so i think the negotiations right now is not over raising the debt ceiling and it's about where can we cut? what about unspent covid funding? what about capping spending at

2022? the administration wants 2023 levels, but i think we're getting closer and we go through this drama every congress and we always seem to be able to work it out at the end. >> did you just say that they are going to meet again? they have a scheduled meeting, the president and the speaker? >> i don't know about -- yes. there have been a lot of meetings at the staff level and i anticipate the speaker will be meeting with the president, and he's also told us to be prepared to stay as long as it takes to june 1st to get it done and that's what the american people deserve. >> he told our manu raju when he was asked what concessions he was prepared to make, he was told raising the debt ceiling. do you feel that not defaulting on america's debt is a concession? >> i think for republicans to vote to raise the debt ceiling was a pretty big deal and the

fact that we were able to pull -- we have only a five-member majority and to get that passed was very significant, and i think gives the speaker leverage into these talks. so i know it may sound -- i personally don't think we should be defaulting on our full faith and credit, and i think my colleagues agree with that assessment, but the idea that you had the majority of republicans voting to raise the debt ceiling, that was a big deal. >> mr. chairman, you had a chance to read what are called dissent memos that had to do with the decision to withdraw u.s. troops from afghanistan. you were the ranking member of the foreign affairs committee and you've been asking for that for some time. you can't tell me what was in that because it's classified information. let me just ask it in a different way, how much new did you learn from those memos?

>> i can tell you my impressions and that is that the embassy officials got the scenario right. they were warning the administration about a dire warnings about what was getting ready to happen in afghanistan if certain actions were not taken. sadly, i don't think the administration really listened to what they were saying, and it ended in this disastrous evacuation that we saw in mid-october and it crescendoed with a suicide bomber going off, killing 13 service men and women and about 170 afghans. turning it over to the taliban was a major mistake. i will tell you that the embassy employees deserve a medal for sending this dissent cable to the administration not only warning them, but telling them what to do to avoid the situation and also to save american citizens left behind,

afghan partners left behind, the interpreters many which we were, as you know and we left american citizens and we left most of our afghan partners behind and the taliban are now hunting them down with the biometrics that we left behind, as well. a disastrous result. i think the administration is embarrassed by this, obviously, and all we want to do is bring out the truth, and i think the veterans of afghanistan and the gold star families deserve to know not only accountability and answers, but they need to know what happened, and they do want accountability for how this ended. >> mr. chairman, as you know, florida governor ron desantis is making it official. he is announcing that he is running for president tonight. have you decided who you will support for the republican nomination for president? >> no. look, i support the nominee, and

i think you are going to see -- you will probably see more candidates getting into this race, and i think it will be very interesting. i think we have a lot of good candidates, you know, out there that will jump into this race, but i always reserve judgment and it's way too early. i think, as you know, in politics we're light years away from the nomination, and so i reserve judgment, but i will support the nominee. >> i have to let you run, but how quickly who you support backs u.s. assistance to ukraine? >> i think it's vitally important. it's in our national security interest in terms of the largest invasion in europe since world war ii, a threat to the pacific, the likes of which we have not seen since my dad's war and when i was in asia, the asian leaders

particularly in taiwan said what happens in ukraine has a direct impact on taiwan. i think the counteroffense that we will see take place fairly soon will be determined in terms of the support for our efforts in the ukraine. i think it is vitally important and the counteroffensive will be successful and i was pleased to see out of the g7 the talk about f-16s going in and the uk has really steppeded up in many way where this administration has given them longer-range artillery to hit crimea. they're putting those weapons in in france for that matter, is as well. a lot is riding on this counteroffensive that you will see take place in the near future. >> mr. chairman, michael mccaul, always a pleasure. thank you for joining us on "cnn news central." sarah? >> all right. house speaker kevin mccarthy is

about to hold a news conference on capitol hill. you see everyone gathered there waiting. this will be about the debt ceiling and the negotiations and where they are in those which is just days away from causing a real problem if they don't figure it out. we'll bring it to you live. meet the future. a chef. a design. and, ooh, an engineer. all learning to save and spend their money with chase. the chef's cooking up firsts with her new debit card. hungry? -uhuh. the designer's eyeing sequins. uh no plaid. while mom is eyeing his spending.

nice. and the engineer? she's taking control with her own account for college. three futures, all with chase. freedom for kids. control for parents. one bank for both. chase. make more of what's yours. all right. let's listen in to kevin mccarthy, the house speaker talking about the negotiations over the debt ceiling. >> the democratic leader before i was even speaker. about ways that we can work together on a debt ceiling. hakeem told me he would follow the president's lead. i went down to meet with the president right after becoming speaker as you all know on

february 1st. i said let's sit down, let's work together. the democrats, they could have lifted the debt ceiling prior to me becoming speaker. they knew the outcome of the election already. they knew we were taking power and they passed an omni bus bill and they decided not to do the rising of the debt ceiling even though they thought people would raise it cleanly. speaking with the president i told him two things, we will not raise taxes. why? because we have more revenue coming into our coffers than at any time in american history. the problem is the democrats have been in power and they increased the amount of spending to the highest level we've ever had at any time in american history especially to gdp, and now we have the highest debt than any time in american history, so i just think it's common sense, it's reasonable and rational that we spend less next year than we spend this year. every household would do this.

we have money that sits up there, covid, that's been appropriated that hasn't been used. we now know the damage that the democrats have done in the majority when they spent that extra 6 trillion. it brought us inflation, harming every single family, made us more dependent upon china, it created three of the largest four bank failures in american history in the last couple of months. we cannot continue down this path, but the president waited 97 days and not even to talk to me. he could have spoken to me and said we were wrong on other angles, but he didn't, and now we're eight days away from biden having default. i don't want that to happen. that's yet repwhy the republica april lifted the debt ceiling with common sense, sensible things that pulling the covid money back and work requirements and they let people go back to work and help the supply chain and make us less dependent on china and more importantly, people working paying into

social security and medicare, making those two entities stronger and then making us stronger in our energy field where we're cutting the red tape where we can build things in america again, putting people back to work. that's reasonable, that's rational, but it sits in the senate, but if the president waits too long he can always take that up. >> the negotiations, has there been appreciable progress? >> there's differences. we know where it's at. you have to spend less than you spent last year. that's not that difficult to do, but in washington, somehow, that is a problem. they have increased spending with the democrats in the majority on discretionary spending by more than 33%. no household has been able to afford to do that. we can find ways and e lliminat that and we found a reasonable way to do it. it's not that -- look, i think we can make progress today. i'm hoping that we can make progress. >> what do you say to those who

believe you can't get to yes because so many members of your conference won't accept anything less than the bill you have already passed? >> you're wrong. you underestimated me the whole time. the one thing you should learn from me, i will never give up for the american people. those are the people i'm looking at. can we get to yes? yes. we passed a bill. >> you need a bipartisan bill now. can you get to yes on a deal with the democrats? >> thank you, because you just identified the problem. no democrat. so every democrat voted against raising the debt ceiling. nothing has happened in the senate. i'm not a senator. i don't control the senate. why didn't they pass something? the president didn't talk to us for 97 days so don't blame me for reaching out to the democrats, for begging the president to meet with me to find it and don't blame us, republicans, when we put a reasonable bill together and we have democrats' ideas and when we take spending for government

and cap it to slow the growth of government so the economy can catch up, that was a democrat idea. when we put work requirements in to help people get a job, that's something senator biden voted for and president clinton signed into law. that was a democrat-supported idea, too. so it's not my fault that the democrats today have become so extreme, so far to the socialist wing that they are now opposed to work requirements, that they are now opposed to saving one dollar less than you spent the year before. that to me seems that the problem are the democrats. >> the white house says they're trying to meet you half way. so, i mean, at this stage of the game since you are at laggerheads, what is the offramp here? >> look, the offramp here is to solve the problem. to spend less than we spent last year. that's not that difficult. they still want to spend more. you cannot do that . no household would do that. look, i explained this before --

>> they don't have a plan. they never passed anything. so and you can't spend more money than next year than you did this year. look, i've explained this before. a debt ceiling so the american people understand, is having a credit card. you raised and you hit the limit. so year after year you just kept raising the limit. so you're paying more interest. so now in america 17 cents out of every dollar that comes in still goes to interest and you owe so much on the credit card, you have to pay it, but you owe more than you make in an entire year. so now in america we owe more on our debt than our whole economy is worth. 20% more. so should you just raise the debt limit or should you literally think, let's eliminate some waste? if we had spent money, billions of dollars for the pandemic that the money has sat there for two years, pull it back. if we can have a provision to help people find jobs, let's do that.

if we can find a way to cut red tape to let people go back and build things in america and make us energy independent and not beholden to china? let's do that. that's all we're asking. we're being reasonable. >> you will need democratic votes probably in the house and you have a democrat in the white house and why not offer a single concession beyond saying we're not going to default? >> we've offered a lot of concessions. the cap on the spending is a democrat idea. the work -- the work requirement was a democrat idea. the -- i can't help it if the democrats have become so extreme and now it's the party of bernie sanders than the party where joe biden was elected. joe biden is the president of the united states. he is the head democrat, but if aoc and bernie sanders i'm not even sure bernie sanders is a registered democrat. >> if the president does not agree to exactly what you want, are you willing to blow past

this? >> first of all, you're premising your questions all wrong. when have i said you have to agree to 100% of what i want? all i have ever said to the president from february 1st, let's talk. there's only a couple things i will not do, mr. president. i will not raise taxes. why? because we are bringing more revenue in even to the gdp, not just to the 50-year average but the history of america. only two other times have we brought in 20% of the gdp. i will not put a clean debt ceiling on the floor. why? because we have spent more than we have ever spent before and we have the highest debt than we have before. i just don't think that's right. let me finish the question. is and then i said to the president, but everything else is on the table. for 9 days he wouldn't talk to me. so he pass ed the bill.

we're not getting everything in our bill. i'm negotiating with the president. we passed a bill that raised the debt ceiling. if i did what you're saying, we wouldn't be talking. but i am sitting and sending our negotiation team down with theirs who their team is highly respected. they know this house and senate well. and i know together, and maybe you discounted me too, i didn't win speaker on the first vote. it took 15 rounds. i think we're stronger for it. and probably we department solve this problem on the first negotiation, but it took us 97 days. i firmly believe we'll be able to get there. >> you negotiated this. the democrats were getting was to raise the debt ceiling. so within the room there, what concession are you willing to give in order to save the economy? >> i'm willing to make america stronger, less dependency on china and spend less than what

we spent the year before. when with we're elected, the powers loaned to us from the american public, who is representing them? it's not my responsibility to represent the socialist wing. if the democrat socialist wing and bernie sanders cared so much, they would have passed the bill and done something on the border. it's not my fault they won't take action. it's not my fault that the president would not meet with me for 97 days. i'm sorry. but the moment he was willing to with me, i have been there each and every day. i firmly believe we will solve this problem. >> how much time will you give your conference to read the debt ceiling bill once an agreement is reached? >> 72 hours. >> are you afraid that voters

will blame republicans for this? >> if there's any blame, we're the only ones who acted. if the american public get rewarded for not taking an action and ignoring the problem, democrats are going to do that. they htold us it was transitory. so if you want to blame responsibility trs soling problems, we'll take that. >> the only thing i look at, if the democrats control the senate and control the white house, and they won't even communicate, i don't think i have to say who is to blame. if republicans passed a bill

that raised the debt ceiling, did it in a responsible, sensible way, i think the american public understand that. first of all, let me tell the american public. i am not going to give up. i will stay with it until we can get it done. but let's be honest about this. we have to spend less than we spent last year. it's not my fault that the democrats cannot give upen their spending. democrats spent the most money. they have the most expenses going out. it's not a revenue problem. it's a spending problem. then you had the highest amount of dealt. don't you think that would finally wake them up to be sensible. i don't want to point things out, but here with cnn. i just heard on your news station that 60% of americans believe the debt ceiling should only be raised after you found savings. so to your question, i think

we're representing the american public. that's what we'll continue to do. i have to open up the house. i appreciate spending time with you. we'll continue to keep you updated as we go. i look forward to the days ahead. thank you all very much. >> house speaker kevin mccarthy with his take on the state of play with the debt ceiling negotiations, which is they are exactly where they were or at least that's what he's saying publicly. >> i'm not sure. the first thing he said, and we were in commercial so you didn't hear it, i'm sending my negotiators to the white house to finish up. the word he used, and he may have made a mistake, was to finish up the discussions on raising the debt ceiling. >> this was kevin mccarthy trying -- almost feels like cleaning up from his remarks to manu last night, which was our

only concession is raising the debt ceiling because he clearly went out of his way, as he did, to say we are not going to default. i'm going to be here until the very end. s but it was a lot of posturing. >> he said they are going to give them 72 hours to read the bill. awl things point to thr going to make a deal. this is not further apart. >> manu raju, let's go to you. you were really at the center of this entire news conference. negotiators going to the white house, the word he used was to finish the deal. i don't know whether that was deliberate or not, but it does paint an optimistic picture than we heard the last 24 hours. >> he's been signaling the talks athat they are still productive. one that can get through both chambers of commerce within a

matter of days. given the fact that he's insisting on are things that democrats have not agreed to. the only indication is that there's been some change in the posture of the white house to agree on the spending cuts that he has been demanding as part of raising the national debt limit. i tried to press him about the concessions he's willing to offer. democrats want their priorities added to it as well. he said the democratic concessions that he was willing to make are one thas rejected, including work requirements and spending caps, rolling back spending levels. two areas of significant dispute with the white house unless there's been change in the posture of the white house, they are still far away from getting a deal, which is why today's meeting with the top negotiators and the white house officials at

the white house will be so significant. if they can close the gap, get closer to getting a deal, announce something before the house is expected to leave town tomorrow and return as soon as next week, if there is a deal. all major questions, but the speaker indicating there's still a lot of work to do. >> manu, mccarthy is sticking to the three-day rule, which is important not just for legislative purposes and rules of the house, but it's important when you're looking at this timeline. we have seen in the past that speakers have thrown the three-day rule out the window at the last minute when need be. are you hearing any openness to that? >> reporter: no, that would cause a rerevolt within the ranks. already mccarthy will have a difficult time holding the line within his conference with members who don't want to offer any concessions beyond what they have already approved in the house, which is a nonstarter to democrats. that's watered down in any way,

expect sizable defections on any bipartisan deal. if mccarthy were to bypass the 72 hours to review the legislation, he could lose even more support, which is why he said he will stick to that timeframe. that adds to the time crunch here, given that if that is the real deadline here. not much time to get to the house. it takes a week. so much riding on these talks, no deal yet. >> thank you. i will say the stock market is on team kate baldwin on this being a grim news conference. the markets dropping down 266 points since kevin mccarthy started speak. >> but he is sending negotiators to the other side. they are all going to the get together. with us you only have five days now. you have to get this done in the next couple days to make sure this gets finished for the american public. thank you for joining us now. this has been "cnn news central." "inside politics" is happening now.