How U.S. lawmakers negotiated through fits and starts to strike a debt-limit deal

With roughly two weeks until the U.S. Treasury was going to run out of money to pay the government’s bills, the negotiations in Washington to lift the nation’s debt limit blew up.

It was Friday morning, May 19, and teams representing President Joe Biden and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy had convened in an ornate meeting room on the Capitol’s first floor with a view of the National Mall. The House and Senate were out of session, so the Capitol was quieter than usual and the dress was casual.

But less than a half hour later, it was over.

“Look, they’re just unreasonable,” Republican Representative Garret Graves, wearing a denim shirt and khakis, said of Biden’s negotiators as he walked out.