>> martha: chad pergram, thank you to senator john thune, the senate minority whip. senator, where does this put this infrastructure debate right now? >> this was an arbitrary deadline that schumer got ahead of himself on. it wasn't necessary to force this vote today. the negotiations continue. the people that are in the room negotiating i think are getting closer to a product that they can send out that people can actually review. then when there's an opportunity next week, if that bill is done, the text is written and scores from the cbo, we can have another vote on this. this was totally unnecessary. they know it. it was an arbitrary deadline put in place by senator schumer. frankly had nothing to do with where the status of the negotiations are. >> neil: so your colleagues, ten of them that had been part of this bipartisan frame work to say yes to this plan for infrastructure spending, they argued and i know the argument now for not a single republican vote today on getting to this debate, that nothing was written. there's nothing to score or look at. how was it

you heard the comments there from john thune, the number two senate republican. why link them?the bipartisan infrastructure bill go forward, get voted on, et cetera, and then separately do the reconciliation budget package which won't get any republican support so that you have -- you'll basically have two victories that way. but if you link them, you might not have the victory you want with the bipartisan deal. >> the sequencing of these measures is still to be worked out. we had a good constructive democratic caucus lunch today. i believe there is a lot of strong feeling for both measures. what we need to do now is to work on the details. and sometimes they turn out to be the hardest part. this is a high-wear act without a net, and we're working every single day to keep everybody together on the democratic side. i hope that the republicans are making a good-faith effort. i believe they are. in this part of the infrastructure bill that they are going to join us on. i've looked at the bill, i've sat in on these meetings. the amount of money that's being spent and where it's bei

quote, he's not going to get 60, let's put it that way said minority whip john thune. one story we're obviously following the senate in today over on c-span 2. also over on c-span 2 and getting under way shortly, our coverage is live now but it's the blue origin launch live in west texas and some video we're seeing from the coverage. that launch of the blue origin spacecraft is set for 9:00 eastern. we will look in and watch that launch if we are able when 9:00 comes around. but it's open forum and your chance to dictate the conversation a little bit. 202-748-8000 is the line for democrats. 202-748-8001 for republicans. go ahead, mary. >> caller: okay, my major concern was what i seen yesterday, which was what going on at the border. we're told, you know, as american people, as citizens that we can't do anything pretty much unless the government tells us to do it because of the virus. but yet when i looked at that picture of those people coming into our country that we do not know who's vaccinated. we don't know what their medical status is. and i don't understand that

senator john thune talking to neil cavuto today. >> there's a framework but it's not done. republicans were perfectly right, in my view, all 50 of us to vote against the motion to proceed to the bill today, which we haven't seen because it hasn't been written. when we have something written to review, then i think this process can begin to move forward. in the meantime, the negotiator are working through some of the final issues and we'll see what they come up with. >> bret: you know, when i go around the country, this is the thing people hate. they just hate the show votes. they hate the vote that's not -- they know is not going to pass. they hate that about washington. >> yeah. so my last answer is misstep from the speaker of the house. this was a misstep from leader schumer in the senate. this was the easiest argument for every republican in the senate to come together and make and we just heard it there from thune. of course we are not going to vote to proceed to debate a bill that doesn't exist based on some completely phony made up deadline from the democrats and chuc

senate minority whip john thune indicated this morning that having this major big massive budget reconciliationumber does kind of turn off republicans as well. republicans are also turned off about some of the paid fors put forward by the bipartisan group and whether they're real or not. joe biden will certainly be in his element among senate democrats this afternoon. >> you were telling me before we went on air they have him scheduled to be there about 30 minutes. raise your hand if anyone thinks that's a remote possibility? >> tomorrow maybe. >> we'll track the president when he gets to capitol hill. president joe biden joins our don lemon for an exclusive cnn presidential town hall one week from tonight, july 21st at 8:00 p.m. > they couldn't fit it in their last ad. so, we gonna have to go fast. ready? there's new steak, deli-style turkey, belgioioso® fresh mozzarella, hickory-smoked bacon, new hearty multigrain, and steph curry juggling avocados for some reason. dang, that's too much for 15 seconds. new crest pro-health complete protection kills 99% of bacteria. plus, it works around... ..

this is john thune, veteran of the senate republican conference saying who knows?d idea. >> trying to rehash and revisit and relitigate the past election is not a winning strategy for trying to get the majorities back in 202 2. >> he's going to keep saying it. there's not anything we can do about it. any time you're talking about the past, you're not talking about the future. >> yep. >> he is not the first to try to say without saying it directly, it would be really nice, mr. former president, if you would just shut up. >> well, they lost control of the senate. based on this argument that the president made that the election was rigged. right? the senate runoffs in georgia. where did votiing drop off in rural parts of the state. it has consequences, electorally, but more importantly, it has consequences to our system of government to believe in the system, and i think so many of us are going to be watching what happens not just in places like georgia where those who stood up and said no, mr. president, i'm not going to switch votes or i'm not going to say this was

actually get onto the final package, one of those that we're watching closely is what does senator john thune of south dakota do? this is one example of, i think, where the president really is out of step with where the republican conference is. the senators want to make a deal. they have been working on this in a way that a lot of people that have covered congress as lung as i have been skeptical they were going to be able to get this far, but the fact they did, it's going to be a long road, but it is on track. they're moving forward. right now, we already saw when the president backs somebody, in that texas run-off, it doesn't always work out in his favor. though how aggressively he's going to campaign against this, it sounds as if it's one or two of his favorite republicans he doesn't like. it's a huge number of republicans in lockstep. >> thanks. >>> also at the white house today, by the way, president biden's expected to take a new more aggressive approach to get as many americans vaccinated at possible. set to announce that all federal workers will be required to be vaccinated. otherwis

i asked majority whip or min minority whip john thune whether or not republicans will block this.ocrats and republicans in that bipartisan group will keep trying to work together. that's their commitment right now. how much time will they give this deal? that's what we don't know at this point. how many more hours, how many more days can this drag on? time is ticking and the august recess is around the corner. i think that's the concern for schumer. he knows he has other things he needs to get done, including moving ahead with a democratic only infrastructure bill starting with voting on the $3.5 trillion budget deal. he needs to get the democrats in line with that as well. a lot of moving pieces. democrats and republicans still don't have a final deal as part of that bipartisan negotiation. victor. >> all right. we will get the latest from the white house later in the program on all of this. thank you. >>> breakthrough covid cases are hitting the white house now. we'll talk about the highly contagious delta varvariant. why it's spreading so fast and what you need to know. it's an

. >> senator john thune called it, in his words, awfully hard to look at your bipartisan framework. >ey're two separate bills, dealing both with infrastructure, different kind of infrastructure, of course. i will tell you that the five republicans and four democrats on the committees and that's who i'm hearing from. we're probably not going to get all the republicans or all the democrats but the bottom line i think we'll get a good vote out of the senate on this bipartisan piece of legislation. >> let's talk about, frankly, the partisan piece. i know you said you're in wait and see mode. let me ask you about that price tag. are you scared away by that size or not? or i should say, are you concerned by that size or are you comfortable with it? >> there's a lot of needs out there. $3.5 trillion is not unreasonable. there's a lot of demands. >> okay. >> what's important is how it's utilized and i don't know that yet. i will know by the time we get this bill to the floor. and we're going to be looking at it, trying to improve it every step of the way. and trying to meet the needs. as i tr

his number two, john thune, voted against it. roadway blunt voted for it.ole mix of folks if you look at the 17 republicans, but it's a big number. and this was a big affirmation of a major biden goal. which is to prove to the country that congress can govern in a bipartisan manner. i believe biden said in his statement that forging consensus is the very heart of our democracy. and that is why -- so on the substance, it was an important policy goal and we're not there yet. we'll get to the complications ahead, but also just on the politics of this, the rational, the mission statement of the biden presidency that the parties can work together, that's a huge accomplishment for the president. >> yeah. i think he feels validated because this is what he's been saying for the whole time, we can get consensus on big policies, big ideas that people agree on and there were a lot of people who did not think this was going to happen and urged the white house to drop out of these bipartisan talks. the thing is to consider there are many, many hurdles ahead. there's a l

the number two republican in the senate, john thune, he cautioned the democrats' massive spending billld undermine support for the more modest bipartisan measure. president biden is still commit to that two-track tragedy even if some republicans are predicting a political collision course instead. >> ylan, thank you >>> today senate democrats unveiled a new plan to legalize marijuana at the federal level ahead on the news, the moves they hope will get support on and off capitol hill >>> rising prices are not expected to take a dip any time soon that's new today from the federal reserve chairman but inflation might not be a bad thing. andrew ross sorkin explains that next. >>> a rise in a different kind of turbulence. passengers behaving badly. three flight attendants tell their stories as we approach the bottom hour and the top of the news from cnbc i'm evie's best camper badge. but even i'm not as memorable as eating turkey hill chocolate chip cookie dough creamy premium ice cream and chasing fireflies. don't worry about me. i'm fine. you can't beat turkey hill memories. >>> americans

you had bill cassidy and john thune, republican senators indicating it would probably take about a weeko process this on the senate floor. this is why the senate already was scheduled to be in session next week. could bleed over into late next week. that said what lurks in the wings here are the details and specifics. any modicum of agreement on the democrats infrastructure package. now again what they have to do is create a budget framework for this to avoid a filibuster. get agreement none the 50 democratic senators to have vice president harris break the tie to get it over to the house of representatives. nancy pelosi, the speaker, reiterated her position today that she wants to see what the senate passes and sends over to the house before they touch this. so even if they tackle the bipartisan bill in the next seven, eight days or so, we're still waiting for that democratic by then of course democrats in the house of representatives, you know, they're not signed on to this deal necessarily in the senate. just because that has wide bipartisan support. that is about $1.2 trillion. agai

look at the things -- the people around him are commenting on, the comments of the minority whip, john thune, they wanted to stop the pro process. still tried to honor what the officers were saying yesterday in a way that no house republican would step up to do. i'm not saying it will be successful but in all the tea leaf reading that i do he's really trying to get away from the stain of 1/6 trutherism that is being amplified by the house republicans and will lead to future violence. >> eugene, it's not enough. i mean, he grimaced in response to a question. if i'm thinking and saw the same thing a.b. is talking about. they did nothing to distance themselves from what liz cheney called a disgrace. it is a disgrace that they continue with the lies. it is a disgrace that they didn't all watch the men who protect them. what is the prospect that this sort of shrinking malevolent cancer inside the republican party will show up in the kind of polls that clearly the anti-vaccine positions they've all clung to now for many months have sort of caused them to start to try to put the toothpaste back in