ST. LOUIS, Missouri — President Biden signed the bipartisan bill into law on Saturday that suspends the national debt ceiling and avoids a catastrophic default on the country's debt.
Chuck Todd, moderator of Meet the Press, joined 5 On Your Side's political editor Mark Maxwell to discuss the deal and to explain the impact it could have on political dynamics in Washington D.C. heading into an election year.
According to Todd's analysis, Biden's experience in the Senate gave him patience to set proper expectations to land the deal, and Speaker Kevin McCarthy had something to prove.
"Joe Biden, being a long time senator, has more patience for congressional negotiations than, say, either Presidents Obama or Trump did," Todd said. "Congressional negotiations require a lot of patience, and I think Biden has more of it than than most presidents that we've had, arguably maybe even going all the way back to Lyndon Johnson, the last president we had that enjoyed being a senator before they became president."
"Kevin McCarthy needed to prove to his own party, and to Democrats in the Senate, and to the White House, that they couldn't roll over him. And I think he proved that," Todd said. "Look, he couldn't get a ton. And I think he wanted to make the point, though, you can't get everything you want either. And I think that's what this deal shows."
Todd said the bipartisan nature of the deal reminded him of a bygone era where both sides got something out of the deal that was helpful to their party, but he warned political observers not expect the bipartisan lovefest to continue.
"I do think politically it's helpful to both McCarthy and Biden, but I also think this is probably the end of bipartisanship for the rest of the campaign season," Todd predicted. "I don't think we're going to see a sequel to the Joe Biden-Kevin McCarthy buddy movie."
You can watch Todd's full conversation here, and watch his interviews with Senator Mike Rounds (R-South Dakota), Senator Joe Manchin (D-West Virginia), and Timothy Parlatore, a former attorney for Donald Trump, this Sunday on Meet the Press.