CNN town hall with President Biden

President Biden continued to call for an investigation into the Jan. 6 insurrection, telling CNN's Don Lemon, “I don’t care if you think I’m Satan reincarnate, the fact is you can’t look at that television and say, nothing happened on the 6th."

Biden was asked at CNN's town hall his reaction to House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy pulling his five GOP members from the Jan. 6 select committee after House Speaker Nancy Pelosi rejected two of them earlier Wednesday.

"You can't listen to people who say: this is a peaceful march," Biden told the audience in Cincinnati.

Biden went on to criticize Republicans and conspiracy theories, referring to "venom" being spread and warned that the rest of the world is watching America and whether America is "really back."

The President also specifically referenced QAnon telling the audience, "The idea that the Democrats or Biden are hiding people and sucking the blood of children... we've got to get beyond this," adding, "this is not who we are."

Asked how he believes anything can done in Washington, when investigating the insurrection can't even be agreed upon, Biden showed optimism, telling the audience, "I have faith in the American people."

Some more context: Earlier Wednesday, House Republicans balked at participating in the House committee that's investigating the Jan. 6 insurrection on Wednesday after Pelosi rejected two of the five Republicans McCarthy had tapped for the panel.

Pelosi's decision to reject the two Republicans — and McCarthy's response to pull the rest his members — injected new fuel into the partisan fight over the select committee that's been raging since Democrats created the panel last month to investigate the circumstances surrounding the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol.

As the US economy attempts to recover following the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, President Biden suspects certain hospitality industries may continue to struggle.

The President was quick to point out that his administration had worked to keep restaurants afloat amid the pandemic, telling Lanni, "we kept you open. We spent billions of dollars to make sure restaurants could stay open."

As CNN's Don Lemon pressed the President on whether or not Americans were steering clear of securing gainful employment in favor of collecting more lucrative unemployment benefits, Biden challenged the notion.

"I see no evidence it had any serious impact on it," Biden said, suggesting instead that Lanni and others in the foodservice industry are struggling to fill roles only because Americans have opted to change careers.

"There's a lot of openings now in jobs and people are beginning to move. Beginning to move," the President said, adding "there's a lot of people who are looking to change their occupation. But I could be wrong."

President Biden, once again pointing to his history of compromise while working in the Senate and as vice president, said he still believes bipartisanship can produce results in Congress, but conceded that the Trump-era did severe damage to working across the aisle.

“And I still believe that's possible, but the well has been so poisoned over the last four years, and even now there's still this lingering effort,” he added.

The President said he has had Republicans privately tell him that they feel he is right, but if they were to vote with him, they would face a primary challenge. Despite that, however, Biden said he does sense a shift towards more bipartisanship.

“I think that's all beginning to move. I don't mean overnight, don't get me wrong, I'm not playing out some panacea here, but I think people are figuring out that if we want to… I've always found you get rewarded for doing what you think at the time is the right thing and people really believe you believe it's the right thing to do. And so I think you’re seeing it come together,” Biden said.

The President has faced calls to either blow up or overhaul the filibuster during his first six months in office as some of his major legislative priorities face Republican opposition, however he has thus far resisted those calls. Biden has however expressed a desire to return to the talking filibuster.

The fight over voting rights has once again put the filibuster front and center. President Biden was just asked during the town hall about his stance on the Senate procedure and whether Congress should get rid of it.

Passing new federal voting legislation in Congress that Biden advocated for earlier this month will almost certainly require altering filibuster rules, since Democrats' slim majority in the Senate isn't enough to overcome GOP opposition.

In his remarks on voting rights on July 13, the President stopped short of embracing changes to the Senate procedure, despite calls from civil rights groups and other Democrats.

But what is a filibuster, and why do Democrats want to change it? The short version of the story is that Democrats want to reinterpret Senate rules so they can use just 50 votes to pass things like the voting rights bill or Biden's massive infrastructure package.

According to the Senate website — which has its own glossary — a filibuster is this: "Informal term for any attempt to block or delay Senate action on a bill or other matter by debating it at length, by offering numerous procedural motions, or by any other delaying or obstructive actions."

These days, it's shorthand for anytime senators demand a supermajority to cut off debate and move to an actual vote on just about anything.

When people talk about ending the filibuster, what they really mean is reinterpreting Senate rules around cloture so that legislation could pass by a simple majority instead of being held up by a minority.

Because Democrats have only 50 votes right now, every one of them needs to be on board to change the Senate rules — and they could be changed back in the future. Currently, moderates like Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia are not in favor of changing it.

Read more about the filibuster here.

CNN's Kevin Liptak, Paul LeBlanc and Kate Sullivan contributed reporting to this post.

President Biden warned tonight that the US' reputation is suffering abroad as conspiracy theories like QAnon continue to run rampant through American culture.

"The kind of things that are being said of late," said Biden of conspiracy theories. "...We've got to get beyond this."

He said leaders of nations he spoke with at the G7 Summit in June were incredulous when he tried to tell them that, "America is back."

"The rest of the world is starting to wonder about us," said Biden. "...Heads of state said 'Are you really back?'...Will the country ever get it together?"

President Biden was just asked about voting rights, and his administration's efforts to make sure Americans have access to the ballot.

State lawmakers have enacted nearly 30 laws since the 2020 election that restrict ballot access, according to a new tally as of June 21 by the Brennan Center for Justice at the New York University School of Law.

The 28 total laws in 17 states mark a new record for restrictive voting laws since 2011, when the Brennan Center recorded 19 laws enacted in 14 state legislatures.

Biden referenced the tally during a voting rights speech in Philadelphia earlier this month, saying that "the 21st century Jim Crow assault is real."

More than half of these new state laws make it harder to vote absentee and by mail, after a record number of Americans voted by mail in November.

The legislative push is part of a national Republican effort to restrict access to the ballot box following record turnout in the 2020 election. Republicans currently control both chambers of 30 state legislatures.

State lawmakers are expected to attempt enacting additional laws this year.

President Biden said he believes that the current infrastructure bill will move forward after Monday's procedural vote.

"I'm not being facetious. You had up to 20 Republicans sign the letter saying. 'We think we need this deal,'" Biden told CNN's Don Lemon.

The President called Wednesday’s vote, which failed to clear the 60-vote threshold required to proceed, “irrelevant,” telling Lemon he does think legislation will advance Monday.

“What happens is the vote on Monday is a motion to be able to proceed to this issue, then they're going to debate the issue of the elements, the individual elements of this plan to make sure we're going to fix that damn bridge years going into Kentucky,” Biden added, to applause.

"I think it's going to get done," Biden said. "Remember last four years we had infrastructure week every week — we didn't do a thing, but it's necessary, you know, I really mean it, it's going to not only increase job opportunities, but increase commerce, it's a good thing and I think we're gonna get it done,” the President said.

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President Biden offered praise for Republican Sen. Rob Portman, telling CNN’s Don Lemon the Ohio senator is “a good man."

Biden expressed the bipartisan infrastructure framework would pass a motion to proceed on Monday, telling voters at a town hall in Cincinnati, “I take my Republican colleagues at their word. I come from a tradition in the Senate, you shake your hand, and that's it, you keep your word — and I found Rob Portman does that.”

Biden's comments on the senator come after Senate Republicans blocked a vote today to start debate on the $1.2 trillion bipartisan infrastructure bill, as they push for more time to strike a deal with Democrats and write the legislation.

President Biden said fears about inflation are legitimate but added that he believes the chances of long-term inflation are slim. 

"There will be near-term inflation because everything is now trying to be picked back up," he added.

When pressed later by CNN's Don Lemon, Biden said he in fact believed the US would soon "reduce inflation."

"We're going to be providing good opportunities and jobs for people who, in fact, are going to be reinvesting that money back in all the things we're talking about, driving down prices, not raising prices," he said.

Surging demand for everything from lumber and gasoline to used cars has driven inflation in recent months. The consumer price index, the nation's key marker for inflation, saw the largest one-month jump in 13-years in June. Prices were up 5.4% over the past year, also the largest jump in 13 years.

Watch the moment: