Biden visits the House in a bid to unite fractious Dems

Progressives are once again threatening to tank their party's infrastructure bill ahead of a key deadline, with President Joe Biden's domestic agenda on the line. This time Democratic leaders believe they have a secret weapon: Biden himself.

Biden will join House Democrats on Capitol Hill Thursday morning for a high-stakes sales pitch to resistant progressives, asking them to support a bipartisan infrastructure framework, although a final agreement on the party's broader social spending bill remains out of reach without clear liberal buyin.

But even as Biden sandwiched the Hill visit and follow-up White House remarks into an already-packed schedule that includes departing for a major foreign trip, some liberals were digging in. They're insisting his bully pulpit wouldn’t be enough to get their votes right away.

Biden “can leave with an agreement of where we need to be and we can vote on the full bill next week,” said Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.), whip for the Congressional Progressive Caucus.

The Biden huddle is a little bit of déjà vu. In many ways Democrats are reliving the nightmarish week in late September when liberal objections forced House leadership to scuttle a vote on the Senate-passed infrastructure bill, enraging the party’s centrists. Biden yielded to progressives’ demands during a visit to the Hill four weeks ago, rather than leaning on his left flank to support the bipartisan bill.