"Debt Ceiling Deadlock: Biden Seeks McConnell's Help to Avoid Default"

President Joe Biden and congressional Democrats are hoping to get Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell involved in negotiations to raise the debt ceiling, despite his insistence that any deal must come between the president and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy. Next week's meeting between Biden and the so-called Big Four congressional leaders marks a new stage in the standoff, and it is a conscious effort by the White House to get McConnell to have some skin in the game. The White House hopes to undermine House Republican messaging that Biden has an alternative to default and to ensure that a slew of "he said, he said" stories don't emerge from a one-on-one meeting.