i have great respect. >> bill: that will increase your level of respect for mother nature. >> dana: when a hurricane comes ashore and how powerful that wall of water can be. >> bill: that's a monday. >> dana: are you looking forward to monday night football? do you know who's playing? >> bill: i don't even know. it's the chargers and the raiders. >> dana: harris is up next. >> harris: emotions are hot and the divide is mighty. how do we know? president biden is getting ready to speak trying to convince republicans not to block him on the debt ceiling. all the while he cannot even get his own political party on board with his legislative agenda. i am harris faulkner. you're in the "faulkner focus." democrats have set a new deadline to pass the massive spending bills. the deadline is on halloween. last week progressives held firm, refusing to vote for the

infrastructure package of moderate senators joe manchin and kyrsten sinema refuse to vote for the much larger bill. president biden is also headed to michigan tomorrow to sell voters on his spending agenda. while at the same time, again, desperately trying to unite his party. >> what is your message to moderates who are frustrated with the delay invoked. >> everybody is frustrated. that's part of being in government. going to work like hell to make sure we get the past. >> harris: talking about himself in the third person. marsha blackburn says don't let the president for you. >> the agenda has become the biden build back broke agenda. the american people have figured out that what they are trying to do is institutionalize socialism. they are trying to do a takeover of the country in one vote. here they are going to come with

the socialist programs to run your life from cradle to grave, daylight to dark. later he aishah hasnie his life for us. >> good morning. frustration might be the understatement of the day because democrats are so focused on this massive spending bill. there are questions about the future of this hard infrastructure bill, the bill that enjoyed bipartisan support on capitol hill which is a rarity for congress. missing this deadline last week, not taking a vote on the hard infrastructure will as promised by speaker pelosi has now enraged both republicans and moderates alike. senator kyrsten sinema, our democrat, and i must have vote in the senate, is calling this whole ordeal inexcusable and deeply disappointing. she is blaming the liberals are

using this bill is an ineffective stage, she calls it, to gain leverage over a separate proposal, the social spending bill. republicans are blaming the left are taking this bill hostage, as they say, warning that the social programs like universal pre-k on the expansion of medicare and medicaid, that they are all going to cost all of us in the long term. democrats and the president are still selling this idea with their multitrillion dollar plan is not going to cost a penny at all. >> this piece of legislation costs zero. we are going to pay for it all by raising taxes on the wealthy and big corporations. >> i've got to stop you there. it doesn't cost zero. you can pay for by borrowing it or you can pay for it by raising taxes on corporations and the wealthy. it doesn't cost zero. >> at the end of the day it will cost zero because we're going to pay for it. >> now we have a new deadline

once again after a couple delays. 26 days a lot can happen but there are some major gaps that need to be bridged. >> harris: halloween. october 31st is the new deadline. thank you. democrat infighting got a feature on "saturday night live" season premiere. >> americans need be. democrats need be. this starring phil has to get past. >> what do i want from this bill? i'll never tell. i didn't come to congress to make friends. so far, mission accomplished. >> that's right. i'm a democrat from west virginia. if i vote for electric cars, they are going to kill me. >> i wore a dress that said "tax the rich" and then spent all my parting with the rich. >> harris: there was something for everybody. former new jersey governor chris christie says president biden can no longer claim he is a moderate. >> it's the depth of 2020 joe biden.

when he went to the hill, 2020 joe biden was dead and buried. the guy who ran against the progressives, ran to be you uniter, ran saying he was going to compromise. he went to capitol hill and capitulated to progressives, the liberals in his party. why should we be surprised? he couldn't stand up to the taliban. how can we expect him to stand up to aoc? >> harris: tammy bruce, fox news contributor, host of "get tammy bruce" on fox nation. he might force a compromise. he won't be doing it bipartisan the way he said he would. >> the whole election was a demand for bipartisanship, the whole election was for moderation. when you look at what happened in the house and the senate and the white house. that becomes of course a joke in and of itself. but the entire dynamic of spending when we think about the disconnection with the impact on us, it becomes even more serious when we think about inflation,

the court problems, supply chain problems, not just cars and she was in exercise equipment with food in the stores because there's fewer truckers. we have this dynamic. a demand is high in supply will be low. it's going to ruin many people's lives. if you're living paycheck to paycheck and you can't get decent meat for your children, this suddenly becomes momentarily dynamic issue when it comes to the health of your family. >> harris: it's interesting. you always have those great examples of how life's texture in the fabric of how we live. things about our own lives that we choose to focus on, if you will. love good nutrition for children. that that suddenly becomes put in the hands of people because of the tax system. >> that's right. it reminds you about what the agenda -- >> harris: people who might not care how our kids eat. >> who don't have to worry about that because of the kind of

money to have. even things we take for granted, we take for granted being able to go into the grocery store and not have a bit like soviet russia where there's empty shelves, where we are able to get fresh vegetables. that doesn't come from leprechauns. it comes from truckers. it comes from people working hard, anonymously in the middle of the night. we see this across the board. they are talking about money and equity when we have ports that have been stopped and people who are still staying home. the department of transportation say nothing about it. that seems like, that's a big, complicated political thing. it affects our daily momentary lives especially people in the inner cities, people that rely on delivery of material to them to live their lives. >> harris: all of us rely on that. at the height of the pandemic and this was something that president biden was running on, how different things would be after he became president. different in a good way.

but that he understood what we are going through through the coronavirus pandemic. i remember going to stores. it wasn't just toilet paper. not being able to get generic prescriptions. that's our coupling with china that made that complicated. it's another area i don't know that he is zoning and on. speak of the problem is no one is. normally you would have the secretary of the department of transportation being able to focus on that because the president, we saw with jimmy carter you can't micromanage things. you're supposed to have experienced people who manage the system properly but they are all stuck in the singular agenda of the bill, nobody else is focusing. they are also in crisis mode, fire after fire after fire. >> harris: self-inflicted crises. a hurricane you can't do anything other than predict the

strength once it's on shore and pick up after it's done. the things you bring onto shore that are your own making. >> this may sound boring but americans are learning about this. the infrastructure. we talk about infrastructure bills. we really care about infrastructure that's not what they are actually selling right now. this is why we care about it. the use that phrasing. in the meantime entry equity is not infrastructure. the ports are and they are completely ignoring it. they are not dealing with the drucker problem because it ruins this eviction moratorium, enhanced benefits, the crisis of covid and fear. >> harris: one of the things we've seen the white house tell us they are doing is meeting regularly with the tech giants. social media is in the realm here and in focus. we former know that the former facebook employee who handed over a trove of documents to "the wall street journal"

because they were of right. going public ahead of her testimony on capitol hill tomorrow. we know who she is. she claims the social media giant knowingly amplifying, currently, hate and misinformation. >> the thing i saw at facebook over and over again, conflicts of interest between what was good for the public and what was good for facebook. facebook over and over again chose to optimize for its own interests, like making more money. chooses profit over safety. it is subsidizing, paying for its profits with our safety. >> harris: this is one of those areas where i think of you. you say that you need talented people to focus on it. >> her allegation is that it was deliberate. it's not like they were a hands-off approach, so back information affected society. a deliberate decision to turn

off certain feeds and turn on other ones that would cause disruption in panic to heighten clicks to get more traffic. that's very different because we have an argument about freedom of expression. the moment you begin to micromanage this based on your particular micromanaged interests, then you're going to have some problems. >> harris: if you watch the interview, she talks specifically about the change when algorithms began -- we saw this with twitter. if curated the racial slur against senator tim scott. the program didn't do it. human beings were curating it. human beings were programming the algorithms to do some of what is targeting of teenagers and conservatives looks like. >> this is what's horrible. there's a lot of money to be made in crisis. it's a business model. there's a lot of money to be made in divisions, anger, demonstrations, fear. people tune in. there's part of the brain.

it covers gambling and violence and sex and fear and you target those things and people and it's like an addiction. this is why when we have someone making this argument, not an argument to have there been more controls over speech, but why are people monetizing and promoting and deliberate removing the negative speech to get more clicks? >> harris: i think we do know. it's the power and money. >> yes, ma'am. >> harris: always good to have you. virginia's governor's race got a lot hotter and uglier. a black voters group has endorsed the g.o.p. candidate. the democrat opponent is belittling their backing. what it means for that particular governor's race in the midterm election. liberal protesters getting down and dirty going after moderate democrats. even to the ladies room. you can't make it.

>> congratulation on fox's 25th anniversary. great event. when this was launched 25 years ago, the skeptics. fox did it. a good idea properly executed with great creativity is unstoppable. i am a very memories of the show on fox news for 17 years. the great success of fox business news. congratulations on a great achievement. the nice thing is that her days are yet to come. proud to be here. home so they only pay for what they need. woooooooooooooo... we are not getting you a helicopter. only pay for what you need.

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>> harris: breaking news on the "faulkner focus." andrew yang, former presidential candidate and new york city mayoral candidate has just announced he is leaving the democrat party and has registered as an independent. he says he's not encouraging anybody else to change their own voter identification but he feels he can make changes to society more effectively as an independent. he also says polarization between the two political parties is worse than ever and he could be more honest from outside the system. we will bring you more news if there is any. moderate senators joe manchin and kyrsten sinema are standing firm in their opposition to the massive spending bill. protests are targeting them in a big way. a group of kayakers confronted manchin while the senator was on

his $700,000 yacht. >> we need to build back better plan right now. >> we need solutions to build back better. >> just how we got elected, we can get you out of office. >> harris: obviously that was not the yacht. that was the more aggressive testers senator sinema. there's always a camera around. a group of immigration activists actually followed her into the restroom at arizona state university where the senator teaches. social media blew up. one user tweeted "wait, what?" if you're a male following a female senator into the bathroom, you've lost the plot. this is a dangerous escalation. the power panel. rachel campos-duffy, a host of "moms" on fox nation. richard fowler, fox news contributor.

rachel, there is a meeting in the ladies room of the protesters were not invited. >> good morning, harris and richard. as a former political spouse, this especially hits close to home. in america, we should never hunt down our elected officials like animals. especially not into the privacy of a restroom. this is outrageous. it should be a felony. perhaps the first lesson of these activists who are not citizens, the first lesson they should learn about american democracy is we don't do that in this country. the other thing you have to look at is the sense of entitlement that they have in this situation. who's teaching in them? i think about my own mom, an immigrant, how grateful and honored and respectful she is of our country and our system and our elected officials. i think it's really to where failed by devaluing the citizenship process. in titling and emboldening

people to come here illegally. we lose a lot in that process, the citizenship process is beautiful. it helps people assimilate, helps them appreciate and love our country and hopefully not do things like this. >> harris: it's interesting, richard, she was by herself in that environment and these people -- it's different, i suppose, if you are someplace and you might have security with you but it's never okay. that's a space we intend to be private. we are going to the bathroom. when i sat down with kyrsten sinema before she was senator, she had bowed with president trump 60% of the time. to win the seat she has in the great state of arizona, she would have to be politically deft and nimble. i would imagine that that's not okay with the far left in your party. >> where we have a problem is when you follow folks into the bathroom. this is not the first time we have seen this. last year we saw a vigilante i must try to kidnap

gretchen whitmer, the governor of michigan. we have a problem in our politics on both sides around how we treat our elected officials. to rachel's point, civility is going out the window when it comes to folks getting what they want but now to your point around the politics around the sport back better. when i think we're waiting on with kyrsten sinema is to give us exactly what her topline czar. we've heard where they are for joe manchin and now we need to hear with the top lines are for christians in the muscle we can begin the negotiating process and conduct semblance of a framework. >> harris: this is just breaking. u.s. senator kyrsten sinema has released a statement. "yesterday several individuals disrupted my class at euros on a state university. after deceptively entering a locked secure building these individuals filmed and publicly posted videos of my students without their permission, including footage taken of both my students and myself using the

restroom." yesterday's behavior was not legitimate in terms of a protest. it is not acceptable for activist organizations to instruct their members to jeopardize themselves by engaging in unlawful activitiese first amendment. we know it's vital to our democracy. the activist group that engaged in yesterdays behavior is one that both of my team and i have met with several times since i was elected to the senate." i'm kind of going through things is rather lengthy. rachel. >> richard brought up the point that this happens on both sides. on and off richard is going for these activists to be treated the way those from the whitmer kidnapping in january 6th, those people are sitting in solitary confinement through many of them not really having their legal rights recognized. maybe he's calling for that. i think on the right many people feel like, whether it is blm of their so-called peaceful protests, and all the bailouts of bailing out one out for people. there is not equal justice for

those who act on civilly. i think this will only embolden kyrsten sinema to remain as fiercely independent as she is. i don't agree with kyrsten sinema on a lot of things. for in a weird situation where kyrsten sinema and senator manchin may be all that saves us, this country right now, from crazy $3.5 trillion climate change so-called -- at least, really. probably closer to 8 trillion when you get rid of the gimmicks, the bill that will take not just our economy but really shackle our children for generations to come. >> harris: people have to find lawful ways to express all that. kyrsten sinema, joe manchin or listening their constituents. we shouldn't miss west virginia and arizona and who their voters are. interesting to see somebody make that choice over whatever is

going on in washington. the governor race in virginia is ramping up. the hampton roads black caucus has endorsed republican glenn youngkin. terry mcauliffe's campaign blew it off saying i love it when the team tweets huge news about a republican group endorsing the republican candidate. the problem is in the previous run, as well as current democratic governor ralph northam. the youngkin campaign clapped back with 40 year career politician terry mcauliffe knows he's losing which is why he had his team are caught looking to diminish any group that dares question his authority or disagrees with him. he's not a leader. he was never fit to be the governor in the first place. what's your thought, richard? >> if you look at terry mcauliffe's record as governor of virginia, virginia was one of the best states to open a business and raise a family when he was the governor so that's the mantle he's running on. >> harris: why doesn't he have the black caucus support.

>> because the black community like every other voting bloc is not a monolith. you could lose african-american supporters. it doesn't mean you're going to lose the race. >> harris: interesting to hear you say that. you and i have these conversations all the time. we get it. we know and then candidate joe joe biden says if you don't vote for him, you're not black that that's ridiculous. there are many communities of color. many black communities, if you will. rachel. >> we saw school board members in virginia, cuban-americans upset about the way governor mcauliffe treats parents and how his belief that school systems and board members have not parents are in charge. minorities do vote not in monolith. i think in general the dysfunction in our economy in the country in general by the democratic leadership in the white house is hurting democrats across the line including the

governor race. >> harris: quickly, richard. this is a harbinger of anything to come in terms of the inflation and all the problems that rachel is pointing to? >> listen, i think the virginia governor's isabel whether and how the midterms will play out. good news for terry mcauliffe is the work that's been done by a black women organizers in the state of virginia to organize folks to get to the polls will likely end up in his benefit. what things will look like in the next month or two. the election is a couple days away. >> harris: they have compartmentalized so many people of color and politics in general and particularly your party. and when they depend on them to get into office. just an observation. the deceived growth. crime is rising in the capital of texas, austin. a shortage of police. citizens pushed to defund the

police department. >> i would rather be -- i wouldn't tell my patience to cancel their holiday plans at this point. >> harris: dr. anthony fauci getting torched by his critics to say it's too soon to tell if gathering for christmas 2021 will be safe. i know who wants to tell him what's going on. jason rantz next.

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>> gather for christmas or too soon to tell? >> it's too soon to tell. we need to concentrate on continuing to get those numbers down and not try to jump ahead by weeks or months and say what we are going to do at a particular time. >> bill: dr. fauci putting early damper on the holiday

season. critics fired back. more love from our own tammy bruce. here's what she tweeted "americans, guess what. no one cares what this troll is saying. we'll do what we know is best for ourselves and our family." and chuck ross "it's bad enough that fauci says these ridiculous things but it's worth that journalists keep framing questions to him as if he has any say over whether we get together for christmas." fauci's comments come despite this from "the new york times." "covid in retreat. new cases in the u.s. have fallen by more than a third in the past month, down 35% from september 1st." last year dr. fauci predicted the holidays would be back to normal by now. jason rantz, what's your take? >> it's ludicrous. it's not too soon to know. there's nothing we know right now he says he can't see friends or family for christmas or hanukkah or thanksgiving or

halloween. we had another weekend filled with stadiums, filled with people. >> harris: taylor degas. hello! >> what we were told before all of this. that they would be super-spreader events and bodies would pile up. we never got any of the follow-up. the politicians who make these claims, any media member fearmongering. we understand the majority of the country is vaccinated with at least one shot. we know that in certain states well over half are vaccinated. here in washington we are upwards of 75%. to tell me is not safe to visit your family for christmas, to say that in october indicates this isn't really about public health at this point. now we are talking about taking total control. that's the scary part. you don't get decide whether i'm seeing my family and friends for any holiday. >> harris: if i could have

last christmas back, i would've seen my dad before he passed. i'm not taking anybody's word for it. dr. fauci waiting on california's vaccine mandate for children, schoolkids, saying he thinks it's the right call by gavin newsom. watch. >> i agree with what governor newsom did in california. people need to realize that having a vaccine requirement for schools is not a new novel thing that is very peculiar or specific to covid-19. we have been doing this for decades. so when we see pushback on this, it's as if this has never happened before. it's ongoing with other vaccines. let's do it with i virus that's very, very serious. >> harris: following the sciences where you want to be. one california doctor, dad of two, says the science does not back up the governor's move. >> the decision the governor made his one that's based on his

personal beliefs. it's based in politics. it's not based in clinical evidence. as a physician, the one thing that i'm topped on the one thing we should practice is evidence-based medicine. >> is not based in science or any of the data. we know kids are unlikely to die or get seriously ill from covid. not to say that it's not serious. it can be. let's stop pretending that a vaccine that's brand-new and hasn't been fully tested on kids the way they want us to believe is as simple as flipping a switch and doing it. parents should get essay an end they being ignored. >> harris: liberal billionaire george soros has dumped $500,000 into a campaign. from refunding its police department. the austin city council votes to cut funding last year. as we have been covering, crime

has gone up exponentially in the number of officers has gone way down. the department has said it would stop responding to nonemergency calls. the austin city council member told fox news it sickens me that out-of-town billionaires are able to swoop into it. the purpose of the city's charter is to allow regular everyday people to fight for what they believe it when the city council fails them. big money george soros sticking his nose in. what does that mean for people of austin? >> it means the people of austin are going after allies up and do a lot of the research on their own and make common sense choices rather than allowing big money from any side to influence where they go. big money. democrats call out big money. they will happily take george soros' money. when you take money from the groups and the people that hold positions you hold, suddenly

everyone shuts up about it. this remains of the voters. we know, not just awesome, all across the country. when you defund the police, you have less officers come you see an increase in crime. you live without you fight back and do something. i am glad that folks in austin have stood up and said enough is enough. they're going to have one more hurdle to overcome. it happens all the time. george soros, lots of groups coming in and the use these as a test case and they see how far they can go. >> harris: that's what i want to get to. i'm going to let you go after this. why would george soros get into this? other cities, portland, seattle, chicago, minneapolis. so many other cities across the nation that are learning the pinch of the defund, not just talking about it but actually doing it. why does he get involved in austin, texas? >> in austin, texas, you have the texas spirit. people are pushing back against

this nonsense and not just giving in. contrast that with seattle or portland. you don't need to put big money into our cities because we already have a populace that believes this nonsense. that's what this is about. >> harris: jason rantz, thank you. always good to have you. as migrants keep pouring over our seven border, more heat for dr. fauci. he is really in it today. he says no way there's tens of thousands of people contributing to the spread of covid. republicans say only one person is to blame. >> how bad is this administration let it get? the worst thing you have is bad policies coupled with stubbornness. that's exactly what we are seeing. >> harris: is a dangerous thing when a percentage that's growing of migrants coming in is testing positive for covid. texas taking matters into its

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>> for our people and our nation. we will meet these obligations

based on the revenue we receive from taxes and based on our ability to borrow when needed. in that case, we are able to borrow because we always pay our debt. we always pay what we all. we never fail. that's america. that's who we are. that's what's called for. it's called full faith and credit of the united states. it is rock-solid. it's the best in the world. here's the deal. there's a cap on what we can borrow, called the debt limit. only congress can raise or lower that debt limit so let me be really clear. this is really important to know. raising the debt limit is about paying off our old debts. there is nothing to do with any new spending to be considered. nothing to do with my plan for infrastructure or building back better, zero. zero. in both of which i might add are paid for.

so if we are going to make good on what's already been approved by previous congresses and previous presidents and parties, we have to pay for it. if social security benefits, american people are promised salaries for servicemen and women. benefits for veterans. where going to have to raise the debt limit if we're going to meet these obligations. raising the debt limit is usually of bipartisan undertaking and it should be. that's what's not happening today. the reason we have to raise the debt limit is in part because of the reckless tax and spending policies under the previous trump administration. in four years, they incurred nearly $8 trillion. in four years, $8 trillion in additional debt and bills we have to now pay off. that's more than a quarter of the entire debt incurred now outstanding. after more than 200 years.

republicans in congress raised the debt three times when donald trump was president. each time with democrats support. but now they won't raise it even though they are responsible for more than a trillion dollars in bills incurred in four years under the previous administration. that's what we'd be paying off. they won't raise it even though defaulting on the debt would lead to a self-inflicted wound that takes our economy over a cliff and risks jobs and retirement savings, social security benefits, salaries for service members, benefits for veterans. so much more. a failure to raise the debt limit will call into question congress's willingness to meet our obligations that we have already incurred. this will undermine the safety of u.s. treasury securities and it will threaten the reserve status of the dollar as the

world's currency. that the on. american credit rating will be downgraded, interest rates will rise for mortgages, auto loans, credit cards, borrowing. folks watching at home, you should know this is the republican position. they won't vote to raise the debt limit to cover their own spending. democrats voted with them to cover that spending. the previous four years. they say democrats should do it alone. but then they are threatening to use the procedural power called the filibuster meaning that we have to get 60 votes, not 50 votes to increase the debt limit. this would block the democrats obligations and responsibilities to prevent congress from raising the debt limit. let's be clear. not only are republicans refusing to do their job.

there threatening -- they are threatening to prevent us from doing our job, saving the economy from a catastrophic event. i think quite frankly it's hypocritical, dangerous, and disgraceful. their obstruction and irresponsibility knows no bounds. especially as we are clawing our way out of the pandemic. democrats will meet our responsibility and obligation in this country. we are not expecting republicans to do their part, they made that clear from the beginning. we tried asking, to no avail. we are just asking them not to use procedural tricks to block us from doing the job that they won't do. meteors headed to crash into our economy. democrats are willing to do all the work to stop it. republicans just have to let us do our job. just get out of the way. we don't -- you don't want to

help save the country, get out of the way so you don't destroy it. we don't have time to delay with elaborate procedural schemes with republican proposals, scores of votes without any certainty at all. many of which have nothing to do with the debt limit at all. that's when accidents happen. the days ahead before the default date, people may see the value of their retirement accounts shrink and they may see interest rates go up which will ultimately raise their mortgage payments and car payments. i'll just say it this way. as soon as this week, your savings and your pocketbook could be directly impacted by this republican stunt. it's as simple as that. republican saint they will not do their part to avoid this needless calamity. so be it. but they need to stop playing

russian roulette with the u.s. economy. it's one thing to pay our debts already acquired. it's another to require a supermajority to pay the debts already acquired. it's not right. let the democrats vote to raise the debt ceiling this week. without obstruction or further delays. democrats in the house have already passed a bill that would do that. it is sitting in the united states senate where democrats have boats ready to pass it. that's the only way to eliminate the uncertainty and risk going to harm american families in our economy." let us vote and end the mess. we must get this done. as i said, it is playing russian roulette to play these games. we can do it this week. let's get out of the way. get out of the way and let us pass it. thank you. >> mr. president, senator mitch mcconnell said he sent a letter to you

explaining his view. have you seen that letter? have you communicated with him? how dire do you believe this is if action doesn't take place the next few days? >> first of all, i did get a letter. i got it 10 minutes before i walked in. i read it and i plan on talking to mitch about it. he and i have been down this road once before back when i was vice president. i hope we can have some intelligent and honest conversation about what he is proposing. the easiest way to do this, if the republicans would not use the filibuster, that would be to elect us vote on what's already in the senate right now, passed by the house, to raise the debt limit. we can do that in the next several days. >> reporter: thank you, mr. president. you've touted your experience in the senate, your age. talking about your ability to be

a closer. why were you unable to close the deal with members of your own party on key parts of your legislative agenda last week? >> able to close the deal on 99% of my party. two people. two people. it's still underway. i don't think there's been a president who has been able to close deals who's been in a position where he is only 50 votes in the senate. in a bare majority of the house. it's a process. it's a process. we'll get it done. >> reporter: it sounds like you're putting the blame squarely on two u.s. senators. senator sinema and senator manchin. am i incorrect? >> i need 50 votes in the senate. i have 48. >> reporter: leader schumer has vowed not to raise the debt

ceiling through the reconciliation process. ultimately it puts -- leader schumer has said he will not raise the debt ceiling to the reconciliation process. if push comes to shove and senator mcconnell does not change his position, what is more important? that position that senator schumer has her raising the debt ceiling? and i have a question on ethiopia. >> president biden: the issue of reconciliation which is like code to the american people, what is reconciliation? there is a process that i understand the republican leader is willing to initiate, to go through. that would require literally up to hundreds of votes. a limited number of votes having nothing directly to do with the debt limit.

everything from ethiopia to anything else. has nothing to do with the debt limit. it is fraught with all clients of potential danger for miscalculation. it would have to happen twice. so you could literally have several hundred votes over the next number of days. everything else would come to a standstill. you still find yourself in a situation where the end of the day you may have passed something that in fact then has to be undone again by democrats or republicans. it's an incredibly complicated, cumbersome process. very simple process sitting down there. sitting at the desk in the united states senate is a bill passed by the house saying we democrats were raise the debt limit, take responsibility, even though some voted to acquire the debt as well. we will do it. that is the way to proceed.

>> reporter: reconciliation her raising the debt ceiling? >> reporter: i'm not going to cross that bridge. >> reporter: allegations of genocide. >> president biden: i'll speak to that leader. >> reporter: 1.5 trillion. senator kyrsten sinema yet to really give that number. how high she's willing to go. she says she is negotiating in good faith with the white house. >> president biden: i will let her tell you that. >> reporter: 1.5 and 3.5? >> president biden: i'm not going to negotiate. >> reporter: mr. president. >> reporter: mr. president, how is what the republicans are doing now any different from when you oppose raising the debt limit is senator? >> president biden: we weren't

calling for filibuster. it was a straight up-and-down vote. >> reporter: mr. president. talked about how you had 48 democratic votes right now. the other two have been pressured over the weekend. joe manchin had people on kayaks show up to his boat. senator sinema last night was chased into a restroom. do you think those tactics are crossing the line? >> president biden: there -- i don't think they are appropriate tactics that it happens to everybody. the only people it doesn't happen to our people who have secret service. it's part of the process. >> reporter: people have said -- >> reporter: comments on other positions. what do you think the size of the reconciliation package should be? >> president biden: i have said what i thought it should be. it's not going to be that. it's going to be less.

the legislation, they build back better peace, as well as the infrastructure piece are things that i wrote. these didn't come from god love him, bernie sanders or aoc or anybody else. i wrote them. i disagreed with medicare for all for example. i laid out but i was important. i think the build back better program required that we have the best education available to us. i'll be speaking to this in detail tomorrow. look, here's the situation. how can we in an ever competitive world, increasingly competitive world, how can we not meet the educational standards of other countries? nobody is reducing the number of years they want their children to go to