Obama Calls in Congressional Leaders; Reid, McConnell Share "Optimism" on Deal
BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome back. Great to be with you on this Monday. I'm Brooke Baldwin. It is now a race against the clock. We're watching the seconds ticking down. In just over two days, some time after the clock strikes midnight, the U.S. will run short of money to pay its bills. Huge news here, because in an hour, the president will be meeting with congressional leadership at the White House. So here are the big guns who will be in attendance at the meeting. House Speaker John Boehner will be there, as well as house minority leader, Nancy Pelosi. Also in attendance today, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell. Right now, the Senate convenes, and these two huge players, McConnell and Reid, are expected to speak. We're watching very closely. We've been reporting this meeting, Reid in McConnell's office, the talking that's been taking place, and what these two say could indicate the face of the country, really, at this point in time. Fast-moving story here. Dana Bash has been all over it. She's our chief congressional correspondent. And so, Dana, I understand Reid has been back in McConnell's office (inaudible) has to be. Tell me, is this a good sign heading into this White House meeting in 60 minutes?</s>DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: It sure seems like a good sign, Brooke. I just came to talk to you from standing outside of McConnell's office, which is kind of on the other side of the Capitol from where I am right now, and Harry Reid was still in that office. We do expect them both to, as you said, leave there soon in order to speak publicly on the Senate floor as the Senate is convening. But as Reid was walking into McConnell's office, our congressional producer Ted Barrett (ph) saw that he was holding a piece of paper, which is a good sign, and he said we're going over the deal. And the question was, are you there yet? And he said, "Not yet." And then we were talking a lot about Harry Reid, but we should also tell you a spokesman for Mitch McConnell also says the two leaders are negotiating in good faith. Good-faith negotiations and talks will continue. So the sort of parameters of the discussions going into these talks -- and we think this is the second round of negotiations. They might have had more face-to-face talks that they got by those of us following them in the hallway -- but the basis, we think, is at least Harry Reid came to Mitch McConnell this morning with an idea of --</s>BALDWIN: Let me interrupt you, Dana Bash, because, as you mentioned, here is Harry Reid speaking on the floor of Senate. Here he is.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: -- a bill to ensure the complete and timely payment of the obligations of the United States government until December 31st, 2014.</s>SEN. HARRY REID (D-NV), MAJORITY LEADER: Mr. President, at 5 o'clock today, the Senate will proceed to executive session to consider the nomination of Andrea Wood, the United States district judge in Illinois and the nomination of Madeline Haikala to be a United States district judge in Alabama. At 5:30, there will be a roll call vote on the confirmation of the Haikala nomination. The wood nomination expected to be confirmed in another way. Mr. President, constructive good faith negotiations continue between the Republican leader and me. I'm very optimistic that we will reach an agreement. It's reasonable in nature this week. To reopen the government, pay the nation's bills and begin long-term negotiations to put our country on sound fiscal footing. I deeply appreciate my friend, the minority leader, for his diligent efforts to come to an agreement. The Republican leader and I will keep members informed as negotiations continue.</s>SEN. MITCH MCCONNELL (R-KY), MINORITY LEADER: Mr. President, Republican leader? Let me just echo the remarks of my good friend the majority leader. We' we've had an opportunity over the last couple of days to have some very constructive exchanges of views about how to move forward. Those discussions continue, and I share his optimism that we're going to get a result that will be acceptable to both sides.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Under the previous order, the leadership time is reserved.</s>BALDWIN: So first you heard from the majority leader, and then you heard from, as he called it, his friend, the minority leader, both Harry Reid and Mitch McConnell. Dana Bash, let me just bring you back in because since some language I heard that, again, going back to the potential reading of the tea leaves and the good news that both of these men are confident that there could be results. The optimism seems pretty pervasive on the Senate floor that a deal will be reached this week.</s>BASH: Absolutely. And to hear it from Harry Reid is one thing. To hear it from Mitch McConnell, the Republican leader, is another. Very, very critical moment here for several reasons. One is because it is the Republicans that are going -- they're the ones who are probably going to have to give, particularly when it comes ultimately to the House of Representatives led by Republicans, who, of course, have been trying to force at the beginning of this, the defunding of Obamacare, delay of Obamacare. Si they're the ones who want to feel comfortable that their brethren in the Senate led by Mitch McConnell are carrying their water at least as much as they can. So the fact that Mitch McConnell sounded so positive really is indicative they feel good they can get what everybody hopes in the Senate will be a big bipartisan vote in order to maybe -- maybe the Senate would say force House Speaker John Boehner's hand or just even more generally, make it impossible for the conservatives, who are probably going to be opposed to anything that's worked out in the Senate, make it impossible for them to prevent John Boehner from bringing whatever the Senate passes to the House floor as we have seen over the past two weeks. So that really was key. The other thing is you heard Harry Reid say that he's optimistic. I once interviewed Harry Reid when he was just becoming the Senate majority leader, and, Brooke, he told me back in his hometown of Searchlight (ph), Nevada, that he's the world's biggest pessimist. He's always pessimistic. He always sees the glass half empty. So for him to say he's optimistic --</s>BALDWIN: Is a big deal.</s>BASH: Pretty important, also keep in mind that everybody here is mindful of the markets. The bonds market is closed because of Columbus Day. The stock market is open and nobody wants to rattle the markets, whether you have an R after your name or a D after your name.</s>BALDWIN: OK. Dana Bash, some optimism on Capitol Hill, we'll take it. We know you're watching very closely. And in just an hour from this meeting of President Obama and Reid and McConnell and Boehner and Pelosi here, this meeting maybe could change everything. The president says there's a good chance the U.S. will default on its debts unless there's a compromise.</s>OBAMA: This is fairly simple, and this whole shutdown has been completely unnecessary. Keep in mind that the problem is not that the U.S. government has run out of money. The problem is not that our deficits are going up. Our deficits have actually been cut in half since I came into office and are continuing to go down. The problem is not that there's not the opportunity for us to work intelligently to come up with a budget that creates long-term fiscal stability while still investing in growth. The problem is is that we have seen this brinksmanship as a strategy time and time again to try to extract extreme or partisan concessions.</s>BALDWIN: To the White House we go, to our senior correspondent there, Brianna Keilar. And Brianna, you just heard from your colleague, Dana Bash, who just heard from Harry Reid, Mitch McConnell. You can hear this sort of rare -- you cover Congress -- this rare optimism there. Is that at all perhaps how the White House is feeling going into this meeting in 50 minutes from now?</s>BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Brooke, I think sometimes you see these meetings and a couple years ago during those bruising debt ceiling negotiations, we saw a lot of meetings where congressional leaders were summoned to the White House and it just sort of felt like, oh, there's another one of those meetings. I guess there's all together in a room and nothing is accomplished. That's not the case, I'm told, today. Those are the indications we're getting from White House officials we're talking to. We're told that during the meeting we should expect that the parties there will be discussing what is going on in the Senate negotiations in detail, that they will be looking for some sort of convergence to get everyone on the same page. Of course, a lot of this, Brooke, as well is about ratcheting up the pressure on House Republicans. You heard Dana talk about that. That is no doubt the case. We saw President Obama really doing that in those comments that he made there at Martha's Table at the food pantry he went to just a short time ago. Really trying to stress that if there isn't a compromise, there could be a default. Really putting the ramifications of a possible default out there as well. And I will say, Brooke, it's not necessarily an indication that the White House is prepared to really bend in any major way here. But I think it's more of an exertion of pressure on House Republicans that they're saying let's get on the same page.</s>BALDWIN: You will be in the Oval Office. You are the pool reporter, so, Brianna, we will check in with you and get some of the color and the facts and figures from that meeting here coming up next hour. Brianna, thank you very much, for me at the White House. And coming up, we have A.B. Stoddard and Ron Brownstein standing by. We're going to talk to them specifically about what they think as these congressional leaders head in to the White House. We have also asked them to make up these lists, to rank who or what has the most influence right now as these negotiations are under way. Their answers surprised us. We're going to run through them coming up next. Plus, where is Vice President Joe Biden here? He's been on the sidelines, but in just about 45 minutes from now, does that all change at this White House meeting? You're watching CNN's special live coverage.