White House braces for meetings amid GOP turmoil

President Joe Biden is preparing to hold a sit down White House meeting on Wednesday with Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell and other congressional leaders as he accelerates efforts to reach a bipartisan infrastructure agreement.

The meeting with McConnell, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and GOP House Leader Kevin McCarthy will come on the heels of a Wednesday vote for removing Rep. Liz Cheney from her Republican leadership post in the chamber.

"He's invited bipartisan leaders to come to the White House to have a discussion about where we can find common ground and how we can work together," White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Tuesday.

"And that's an example of how he feels he can represent the American people, pursue an agenda that would help benefit people, whether their vote they voted for him or not."

Cheney, R-Wyo., seems all but certain to be tossed from her No. 3 House GOP job after repeatedly challenging former President Donald Trump's false assertions pinning his November reelection defeat on widespread voting fraud.

She's also criticized his role in inciting his supporters' attack on the Capitol on Jan. 6 as electoral votes were being formally certified, and she was among just 10 Republicans to support the House's vote to impeach him the following week.

McCarthy has signaled his desire to remove Cheney for several weeks.

Cheney's job as chair of the House Republican conference includes formulating party messaging.

Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., an early Trump critic who has embraced him over the past two years, seems likely to replace her, though McCarthy might delay that second vote.

Psaki insisted the White House will leave the Republicans "to work out among themselves," the House party leadership, and instead focus on the president's drive for funding his infrastructure plan.

"Let's figure out how to work together moving forward," she told reporters. "And that's what he (Biden) hopes to focus the meeting on."

The first formal gathering of the "big four" congressional leaders since the president took office is crucial for the White House's outreach on Biden's two-pronged $4 trillion American jobs and families plans.