Former Democrat Senator says Biden should negotiate on debt limit

Former Democrat Sen. Heidi Heitkamp (D-ND) said on Tuesday's installment of CNBC Squawk Box that she thinks President Joe Biden may need to work with Republicans on the debt limit now that they have passed a bill addressing the issue.

Heitkamp said:

[E]ventually, I think they’re going to have to reach a deal and we’re going to have to come to the middle. And the question is, is this something that the Republicans accomplish and the Democrats can accomplish working together? And I think there [are] no heroes of this story, but the real villains will be if we can’t see people coming together to fashion a result to basically avoid this crisis.

Heitkamp said that she thinks Biden would cut a deal if he were "left to his own devices," whatever that means.

Does she mean Biden is being carefully controlled and handled? If so, she'd be the first Democrat to admit this, and is that the kind of president we really want or need?

She said the previous obstinance on the part of Democrats with regard to the debt ceiling was because they never thought Republicans could pass a bill codifying the spending cuts. Biden even taunted McCarthy about not having a plan before the bill was passed.

"I think the posture was, look, we’ll see what you have. Now McCarthy’s been able to deliver a bargaining position, then it’s up to Biden to respond, I think,” she said.