President Biden is holding a town hall in Cincinnati on Wednesday with CNN’s Don Lemon, the second town hall since he took office six months ago. The town hall will air at 8 p.m. on CNN.
The town hall comes just hours after the Senate failed in a procedural vote to advance the bipartisan infrastructure bill, a key part of Mr. Biden’s economic agenda. Senate Republicans blocked the measure from moving forward in the evenly-divided Senate, declining to provide the 10 votes Democrats needed to begin debate on the infrastructure package, which is a pillar of President Biden’s economic agenda. The 49 to 51 vote fell short of the 60-vote threshold to overcome a filibuster.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer insisted Tuesday the vote was setting the stage for the larger bipartisan infrastructure framework. Schumer insisted negotiations will continue.
The Biden administration is also dealing with a spike in COVID-19 cases and declining vaccination rates. Centers for Disease Control director Rochelle Walensky said Tuesday that the Delta variant is responsible for 83% of new COVID-19 cases, and vaccination rates have plummeted since the high in April. The Biden administration also missed its goal of getting 70% of American adults vaccinated by July 4.
First lady Jill Biden headed to Alaska and Hawaii on Wednesday to encourage Americans to get vaccinated. After that, she will head to Japan, where she is leading the U.S. delegation to the Opening Ceremony of the Summer Olympics, although there is a state of emergency in that country due to COVID-19. Several American athletes have been sidelined from the games after testing positive for COVID-19.
As fears rise about the Delta variant, White House press secretary Jen Psaki on Tuesday admitted there had been breakthrough COVID-19 cases in the White House.
This is Mr. Biden’s second town hall since he took office in January. In February, he held a town hall with CNN’s Anderson Cooper.
