paul brandon's joining us live now from belfast. paul, i, are there any signs that this political deadlock might be seeing some sort of breakthrough frankly, the expectations from today's meetings are very low. indeed. they've been characterized as follows. just simply to discuss next steps. and it's clear that the government minister responsible for northern ireland, cris heaton harris, although he has expressed and repeatedly expressed his desire to announce elections here because of the more that the forces him to do. so it seems he's under intense pressure from the london government to postpone that for as long as possible. so as to give space for the talks between the u. k and european union on the north island protocol. this the rules that govern trade between the u. k. and northern ireland to give them that space to come to some kind of compromise up to the u. k. and brussels. the leaders will meet here at ask in house, in central belfast during the course of this morning. but as a say, this really just uncertainty and frankly

as paul brandon reports, that is starting to have an impact on the lives of the public wants ex, can sometimes appear remote, irrelevant even to the daily lives of ordinary citizens. but not in northern ireland. political differences here are deeply felt and the lack of a functioning government is having an impact in all parts of the public sector. transport rhodes, justice, environment and health. all of the left treading water. but in reality, the thinking the political stalemate has blocked progress on important health care reform, waiting lists for treatment a long and growing and excess mortality figures are increasing. people are literally dying for a lack of political leadership. what has happened as a result of that? we haven't had a budget and to haven't been able to plan to anything that has been done at the moment is done in the old way, a new ability whatsoever to plan them to think the future. so it is purely firefighting at the moment with the service under so much pressure and more pressure than we've ever seen that under health care work has here in northern ireland h

as paul brandon reports that are starting to have an impact on the lives of the public wants ex, can sometimes appear remote, irrelevant even to the daily lives of ordinary citizens. but not in northern ireland. political differences here are deeply felt and the lack of a functioning government is having an impact in all parts of the public sector. transport rhodes, justice, environment and health. all of the left treading water. but in reality, the thinking the political stalemate has blocked progress on important health care reform, waiting lists for treatment a long and growing and excess mortality figures are increasing. people are literally dying for a lack of political leadership. what has happened as a result of that? we haven't had a budget and to haven't been able to plan to anything that has been done at the moment is done in the old way. a new ability whatsoever to plan and to, to think that the future soon is purely firefighting. at the moment with the service under so much pressure and more pressure than we've ever seen it under health care work has here in northern irel

. -- commentator ashley allison and brandon buck, a former top aide to paul ryan and john boehner. and that idea of where things stand and in terms of the messaging, let's listen to what president biden had to say when he was asked whether or not his message was actually getting through to democrats, it's a quick one, listen. >> mister president, is your message going through to the american voters? >> yes. >> is it that simple? he said yes and a thumbs up, is that it, are we done, no conversation? >> he probably does not have one message. he has four or five messages. and this is a basic political politics communications 101. you have to hammer a message over and over again, and in the final weeks, he's talking about democracy, talking about republican cut to social security, out of nowhere. he's talking about abortion, you have to focus on one thing or two things and say it over and over again. he's all over the place. what he is not talking about as much as the economy, by far number one issue. you're not even on the playing field on the one issue that most people have said, thi

paul ryan. >> that's right. >> and, joe, let me ask you about president biden. this past week has been a good week for democracy, decency and dark brandon, i think. forgive me if that reference is going over your head. maybe we're too old to get some of these things from the young voters. the speculation about whether or not the president will run again in 2024, i suppose that will continue. and he gives the same answer about that. let me get your comment on the other side. >> look, my intentions, i said in the beginning, is that i would run again. but it's just an intention. i have not made a formal decision. but it's my intention. my intention to run again. my intention is i will run again. but i'm a great respecter of fate. >> what do you think, joe? he's routinely underestimated. and now, can boast one of the best performances during midterms that a democrat has seen in a very long time. >> yeah, jim. that reference to my age or his age, this was a very good week for president biden. >> i'm sorry. i should not have said it that way. >> so much of, i think the resistance he was getting was this narrative that he was underperforming a