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(WASHINGTON) — German Chancellor Angela Merkel visited the White House Thursday for talks with President Joe Biden.

The two leaders held a meeting in the Oval Office before participating in a joint press conference in which they addressed COVID-19 travel bans, relations with China and Russia, protests in Cuba, Biden’s “Build Back Better” agenda and more.

On Cuba, Biden said, “Communism is a failed system, a universally failed system. And I don’t see socialism as a very useful substitute, but that’s another story.”

Following the press conference, Biden and Merkel were having dinner with a variety of leaders. Vice President Kamala Harris, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, former Secretary of State Colin Powell, former Democratic nominee for president Hillary Clinton and New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy were slated to attend.

After deciding not to seek another term in office, her trip likely marks a farewell to Biden and served as a chance for the longtime acquaintances and partners to reaffirm the strong U.S.-Germany bond in the face of global challenges, such as the coronavirus pandemic and rising autocratic influences.

“Chancellor Merkel has been a true friend to the United States, a strong advocate for the transatlantic partnership for multilateral cooperation, as well as for our shared priorities,” a senior administration official said ahead of the meeting. “In their meeting, I expect that President Biden will convey gratitude for her leadership role, in Europe and around the world, as she prepares to depart the German political stage, following their elections this September.”

The visit has also been an opportunity for the pair to hash out some areas of concern before Merkel’s tenure ends.

Merkel kicked off her day in Washington having breakfast with the vice president and then attending both a one-on-one and a larger group meeting at the White House with Biden. And invited to the dinner for her were “a range of individuals who have long been strong supporters of Germany and the bilateral relationship, which will further demonstrate the close and continuing ties between our countries,” a senior administration official said ahead of the chancellor’s visit.

Despite the warm welcome, challenges remain.

One sticking point between the two countries is Nord Stream 2, a pipeline to move gas directly from Russia, under the Baltic Sea and into Germany. Biden is opposed to the pipeline, as are many Republicans in Congress, because it could give Russia increased influence in Europe and more control over energy reserves. The pipeline will likely deprive other countries, such as Ukraine, of badly-needed oil revenues and some experts fear Russia could shut off the gas supply to certain countries in retaliatory moves.

Biden lifted U.S. sanctions on companies helping to build the pipeline in May as a goodwill gesture to European allies, as he worked to get them on board with his tough-on-Russia policies and in a tacit admission that U.S. sanctions ultimately failed to halt construction. That was a move some Republicans, including Sen. Ben Sasse of Nebraska, criticized.

“Instead of treating Putin like a gangster who fears his own people, we’re giving him his treasured Nord Stream 2 pipeline and legitimizing his actions with a summit,” Sasse said.

It’s a topic Biden was expected to bring up with Merkel on Thursday.

“I do expect that President Biden will raise his long-standing concerns with Chancellor Merkel during their meeting about Russia’s geopolitical project and about the importance of developing concrete mechanisms to ensure that energy is not used as a coercive tool against Ukraine, our eastern flank allies or any other country. We believe that the sanctions waivers that we announced in May have given us diplomatic space to be able to work with Germany to have these conversations to try and find ways to address the negative impacts of the pipeline,” the official said.

However, there was no formal announcement on Nord Stream following the meeting.

The official did preview that Biden and Merkel would release a so-called Washington Declaration, “which will outline their common vision for cooperation to confront policy challenges,” and provide guiding principles for years ahead, even as Merkel’s successor takes the helm. The official also anticipated a climate and energy partnership to be announced, though they provided no further details on what that will look like.

Another area of difference between the two leaders is China’s rising global influence. While Biden has seen China as a competitor that must be curtailed, Merkel is friendlier towards a rising China, believing their success and a balanced trade relationship between the two countries, will benefit Germany.

Other agenda items included the pandemic and security challenges in Afghanistan.

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(WASHINGTON) — Rep. Joyce Beatty, D-Ohio, chairwoman of the Congressional Black Caucus was among nine protesters who were arrested by U.S. Capitol Police after leading a peaceful demonstration to advocate for voting rights inside the Hart Senate Office Building.

At least 20 Black women activists joined Thursday to rally against legislation across the country which Democrats argue is restricting Americans’ right to vote. They called for federal intervention and specifically the end to the filibuster rule, so the U.S. Senate may pass the For The People Act.

Protesters walked hand in hand into the Senate office building Thursday, singing and chanting, “Let the people vote!”

“This afternoon, nine people were arrested for demonstrating in a prohibited area on Capitol Grounds. At approximately 3:30pm, the United States Capitol Police responded to the Atrium in the Hart Senate Office Building for reports of illegal demonstration activity,” a U.S. Capitol Police statement said.

“After officers arrived on the scene, they warned the demonstrators three times to stop. Those who refused were arrested for D.C. Code §22-1307. Two males and seven females were transported to USCP Headquarters for processing,” the statement continued.

Leading the demonstration was LaTosha Brown, cofounder of the Black Voters Matter Fund, Tamika Mallory, founder of Unit Freedom, Dr. Johnetta Cole, national chair and president of the National Council of Negro Women, Cora Masters Barry, CEO of the Recreation Wishlist Committee, Dr. Barbara Williams-Skinner, CEO and co-founder of the Skinner Institute, and Melanie Campbell, president of the National Coalition of Black Civic Participation.

The demonstration comes just two days before the one-year anniversary of the death of the late Rep. John Lewis, a civil rights icon who marched alongside Martin Luther King Jr. in Selma, Alabama, on “Bloody Sunday” in the Civil Rights movement.

Following her arrest, Beatty tweeted in Lewis’ honor with the caption, “#goodtrouble.”

ABC News’ Benjamin Siegel and Libby Cathey contributed to this report.

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(WASHINGTON) — Roughly a dozen Texas Democrats who fled their state to come to Washington met Thursday in a Capitol Hill basement with the Senate Democrat who holds the key vote in Congress on voting rights legislation, West Virginia’s Joe Manchin.

But apparently, the subject of Manchin making an exception to the Senate’s filibuster rule for voting rights never came up.

Emerging from the hour-long meeting, Manchin told reporters, “It was a very good meeting. It was a very informative meeting, and basically, we’ve all come to a total agreement that what we want is basically to protect voting rights. That’s it. A voting rights bill with guardrails. That’s all.”

The centrist Democratic senator, who has refused to support an exception to the filibuster rule requiring 60 votes to move forward on most legislation in the 50-50 Senate, said that hot topic pushed by many voting rights activists wasn’t even discussed.

“A filibuster doesn’t need to (happen),” Manchin insisted after the meeting, claiming, “There shouldn’t be a Democrat or a Republican that wouldn’t or couldn’t or shouldn’t vote for something that truly just only deals with voting and the rights of voters.”

Later, the Texas Democrats confirmed to reporters that the filibuster indeed wasn’t mentioned, saying that was by design.

“I think enough people have discussed the filibuster with Joe Manchin. That’s the elephant sitting in the room. Everybody knows what the deal is,” said state Rep. Joe Moody of El Paso, the now-former speaker pro tempore of the Texas House after Republicans voted to strip him of that title.

The meeting comes a day after President Joe Biden made an impassioned speech calling Republican efforts to restrict voting rights an “assault on democracy” but didn’t mention Manchin or the Senate filibuster rule.

Manchin said he is working on legislation, but it is not clear if that would be a new effort, or if it would be the John Lewis Voting Rights Act, designed to restore and modernize the 1960s era- process of “pre-clearance” by the Justice Department that protected minority populations from discriminatory laws in states with a history of discrimination.

The U.S. Supreme Court recently struck down a section of the federal Voting Rights Act that voided that pre-clearance process as outdated.

And Texas Democrats said they are “100%” confident that what Manchin is trying to do will protect what they want to accomplish.

“We were encouraged by his comments and I think we know what his path is and it’s to focus on something a lot more narrower than S.1 and to focus on something that specifically addresses voting rights and pre-clearance,” said state Sen. Carol Alvarado, referencing the sweeping election reform bill — calling for expanded mail-in and absentee voting, requiring automatic voter registration, and major campaign finance and ethics reforms — that the Senate voted down last month.

But whether there is sufficient bipartisan support for narrower legislation is also unclear, though Alaska GOP Sen. Lisa Murkowski has said she will help rally her conference to back the effort.

Getting legislation through the Senate at this time would be extraordinarily difficult with infrastructure and budget bills expected to consume months of floor time starting next week.

ABC News’ Alisa Wiersama contributed to this report.

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(WASHINGTON) — As the first round of monthly child tax credits hit Americans’ bank accounts Thursday, President Joe Biden and Vice President Harris took a victory lap at the White House, speaking about the “historic day” for American families and emphasizing the sea change the payments could represent for millions of American children living in poverty.

“Today, for families all over our country, for children all over our country, help is here,” Harris said, before introducing the president. “This has never happened before. And America, yes, it is a big deal.”

Biden and Harris marked the rollout of checks and direct deposits from the child tax credit with a White House event featuring Americans set to benefit. Both leaders nodded to those families in their remarks.

“This has the potential to reduce child poverty in the same way that the Social Security reduced poverty for the elderly,” Biden said.

With the policy, families making less than $150,000 a year and single parents making less than $112,500 are now eligible for a credit of up to $3,600 per child. Payments will be going out to 39 million households, according to the IRS.

Biden frequently touted the payments as a “middle-class tax cut,” saying it’s geared toward “the folks who are struggling, or just looking for a little bit, as my dad would say, a little bit of breathing room.”

“Ninety-seven percent of the children receiving this credit come from working families, and the other 3% include kids being raised by retired grandparents or by someone with a serious disability,” he said.

Those families who qualify for the credit, which was expanded as part of Biden’s $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan, will receive monthly payments without taking any further action. Initial eligibility will be based on 2019 or 2020 tax returns, the IRS has said.

“I think this will be one of the things that the Vice President and I will be most proud of when our terms are up,” Biden added.

The president also took the chance from the bully pulpit to put pressure on Congress to extend the tax cut — since it’s set to expire in after a year.

“These tax cut payments are arriving automatically. But it didn’t happen automatically,” Biden said.

Through Democrats’ $3.5 trillion human infrastructure plan, the tax credit could get an extension. Biden argued the case, speaking directly to lawmakers.

“We shouldn’t let taxes go up on working families. We shouldn’t let child poverty continue to stain the conscience or drag down our economy. And so, I say to my colleagues in Congress: this tax cut for working families is something we should extend, not end next year,” he continued. “So I say to my colleagues in Congress. This tax cut for working families is something we should extend not end next year. And I say to all of you watching. Make sure your family, friends and community know about this tax cut.”

The latest expansion under Biden increased the child tax credit from $2,000 to $3,000 for children over 6, and to $3,600 for children under 6.

While Biden laid out the mechanics of the payments in his remarks, he did not give a plan to reach families whose income is so low that they don’t usually pay taxes. The Treasury Department has estimated that automatic payments will go out to 88% of childrens’ families nationwide, but that leaves about 7.8 million children whose families would have to sign up to receive the payments. He urged families to visit Childtaxcredit.gov, but questions remain about the administration’s overall outreach effort.

Biden closed his remarks by highlighting some of his achievements in office, linking the “groundbreaking effort” of the child tax credit to the “wartime effort” to get Americans vaccinated against COVID-19.

“We’re proving that democracy can deliver for people and deliver in a timely way — saving lives, improving lives, helping fuel record-setting recovery, giving working families a fighting chance again,” he said.

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(AUSTIN) — While the focus in Texas politics is on state legislators and a stalled special session, the speculation over Matthew McConaughey’s possible run for governor of Texas continues to garner steady interest.

The Academy Award-winning actor has teased the idea of a potential 2022 gubernatorial run for months but more recently called it “an honest consideration.”

“What an awesome privilege, an awesome responsibility, awesome position of sacrifice and service,” McConaughey said about the potential run while featured on “The Ellen DeGeneres Show” in May. “It’s something I’m trying to look in the eye and give honest consideration.”

In March, he told GMA3’s T.J. Holmes simply that it’s a “consideration.”

“It’s consideration until it’s anything else. I’m weighing my options again about what is my role going forward,” he said.

The buzz around McConaughey’s entrance into politics comes as his state of Texas was thrust into the spotlight this week over Republican-backed efforts to revise the state’s election and voting laws, causing a large group of state Democratic Representatives to flee the state in an effort to block the bill by breaking quorum.

But even if McConaughey were to run, questions remain about the type of politician he might be. According to reporting by ABC Austin affiliate KVUE, the actor has only voted twice in Texas since 2012 — in the 2018 and 2020 general elections, as indictated by state voting records — and there is no record of him making campaign donations at the state or national level. He has also declined to say whether he would run as a Democrat or a Republican, the affiliate reported.

Although he lacks political experience, McConaughey has taught film production at his alma mater, the University of Texas, Austin, since 2015. During the pandemic, he created a tutorial on how to make a DIY face-mask. And when a deadly ice storm tore through Texas, McConaughey hosted a virtual benefit, enlisting help from his Hollywood friends to raise millions through his Just Keep Livin’ Foundation.

McConaughey wouldn’t be the first person to make the transition from the world of entertainment to politics. Former President Donald Trump and Former California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger ran successful bids, but star status, while helpful, doesn’t ensure victory. Olympic Gold medalist Caitlyn Jenner is seeking to use her celebrity status to oust California Gov. Gavin Newsom in a recall election but has failed to gain momentum. In 2018, Soap opera star Antonio Sabato Jr. was unsuccessful in his bid for a California congressional seat as was Cynthia Nixon when she tried to unseat New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo.

Still, politicians have been closely looking out for McConaughey’s next move. The incumbent, Gov. Greg Abbott, said during an appearance on Fox News last week that he’s not dismissing McConaughey as a competitor. Texas Sen. Ted Cruz is also taking McConaughey’s potential bid seriously, saying on Hugh Hewitt’s radio show last month that “a good-looking, charming, affable movie star can be a really formidable candidate on the ballot.”

“And I hope that doesn’t happen, but you know what? He’s going to have to make his own decision whether he’s going to run or not,” Cruz said.

The 2022 Texas gubernatorial election will take place on Nov. 8, 2022, with Abbott seeking reelection for a third term.

While it is unclear whether McConaughey will jump into the race, he would need to file a candidate declaration of intent by Dec. 13.

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