Democrats are growing frustrated with the White House as President Joe Biden appears to be botching negotiation with House Republicans over the debt ceiling.

Negotiators with House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) and the White House have yet to reach an agreement on raising the debt ceiling, though the speaker said on Friday that the two sides had made some progress. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen had set a deadline of June 1 to strike a deal before mandatory spending cuts would take effect, but she extended that deadline to June 6 on Friday, giving negotiators a few more days of breathing room.

The White House appears to be failing to make its case to Americans, giving McCarthy an edge in negotiations. A recent Fox News poll of registered voters showed that 47% would blame the president if debt ceiling talks derailed compared to 44% who would blame the GOP. A recent CNN poll found that 60% of Americans believed cuts to spending should be part of a debt ceiling deal.

Democrats are pushing Biden to be more aggressive about making the White House’s case to the public.

“It’s time to bring the president off the bench, or bring somebody off the bench. No one’s responding to anything. Kevin’s consistently on message,” one House Democrat, speaking anonymously, told POLITICO. “We have the Oval Office. I’ve never seen anything like it.”

Connecticut Democrat Rep. Rosa DeLauro said Biden has lost the messaging battle to McCarthy. “The scale of the cuts is staggering, which really the public knows very little about,” she told POLITICO of the Republican bill. “The president should be out there.”

The GOP bill passed last month in the House would cap discretionary spending at 2022 levels and limit spending increases to 1% a year for the next decade.

Biden is also facing backlash from progressives who say the president should not be involved in negotiations at all. A group of progressive lawmakers are pushing the president to unilaterally raise the debt ceiling using the 14th Amendment, a legally dubious strategy that would almost certainly face a court challenge.

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“I’m very frustrated. You know, I called on the president to invoke the 14th Amendment and mint a coin and do not negotiate with hostage takers,” Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D-NY) told CNN on Thursday. “I mean, we don’t negotiate with terrorists globally. Why are we going to negotiate with the economic terrorists here that are the Republican Party?”

Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-WA), the Progressive Caucus chair, said a “bad deal” cut with Republicans could impact Biden’s reelection chances.

“The president — I’m sure he’s thinking about the fact that it was a very vibrant, diverse coalition that put them in the White House, and he’s going to need that vibrant, diverse coalition again for 2024,” she said.

Yulia Hicks, a child who was reportedly denied a kidney transplant by Duke Children’s Hospital last year, underwent a successful, life-saving kidney transplant at ECUHealth Medical Center on Thursday.

The North Carolina-based hospital stepped up to help Yulia, who has a genetic kidney disorder that requires a transplant, after her family said last year that Duke was refusing to put the teen on its kidney wait-list because she is unvaccinated against COVID. Notably, the family says Yulia had already recovered from the virus, but such information was unimportant to Duke Children’s Hospital.

Yulia was sent back for surgery at 7 p.m. on Thursday evening, and is currently recovering in the pediatric ICU, Yulia’s mother Chrissy Hicks told The Daily Wire in a phone interview on Friday. The teen’s surgery went extremely well and relatively quickly. Yulia is expected to leave the hospital on Monday or Tuesday.

“We found out Friday that we were gonna have surgery this week, and that was just, like, overwhelming because the blessings are just — it’s so overwhelming that everything worked out,” Chrissy told The Daily Wire. “You know, we had hoped that this would all happen, but then for it to actually happen — you’re like, oh my gosh, it really worked, you know?”

Courtesy of Chrissy Hicks

Yulia’s donor is a man from Kentucky, who has decided to remain anonymous. The family was told his initials are J.J.

“If it wasn’t for the media giving us attention, we would’ve never found her donor, because he came forward because he saw it in [online],” Chrissy said. “He wanted to just test and see if he was a match. We still don’t know his name, we just know he is from Kentucky and we know his initials are J.J., so he’s gonna forever be J.J. to us.”

Chrissy said around 40 people came forward looking to test if they were a match in the wake of conservative media bringing attention to Yulia’s case.

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The Hicks family asked for prayers for J.J. in an update posted to a GiveSendGo account for the family. “Please pray for his recovery. He is a hero,” it reads.

Chrissy told The Daily Wire that her family is working to get Yulia’s Law passed in North Carolina. The law would bar hospitals from denying people transplants based on their COVID vaccination status. Chrissy would like to see the law go national.

“It’s just about medical freedom is what it really comes down to,” she said. “And it’s not just about Yulia. Through this whole thing, we’ve had about 10 or 15 people contact us privately and we’ve been able to send them to hospitals that we know will take them without the vaccine. So it is not just about Yulia; it’s helping other people already and we’re hoping we can expand that even more.”

The family is also pursuing a lawsuit against Duke over the hospital allegedly denying Yulia a place on the transplant list over her COVID vaccination status.

“We are also still raising money for legal fees for our lawsuit against Duke,” the GiveSendGo account says. “What they did to our daughter was unconscionable.”

Chrissy praised the team at ECUHealth for their care and professionalism.

“We want to thank the entire team at ECUHealth for everything, especially Dr. Leeser, Dr. Romine, Cynthia Stone, and Allyson Ayers.” the crowdfunding page reads. “They are the most caring and professional team that we have encountered on this journey.”

The Daily Wire reported last year that a phone call, the recording of which was obtained by journalist Alex Berenson, reportedly revealed a Duke health official telling the Hicks family that Yulia must get vaccinated against COVID before she could become a candidate for the kidney transplant.

“I can’t require you to do anything. I can recommend these things, but if you don’t follow our recommendations, then Yulia can’t be a transplant candidate here,” the Duke Health kidney specialist reportedly said.

Throughout her interview with The Daily Wire, Chrissy repeatedly gushed over everyone who’s supported and prayed for Yulia.

“Thank you,” Chrissy said. “Just, thank you. We can never — ‘thank you’ will never be enough. Please keep praying for Yulia’s recovery and for this angel who saved her, J.J.”

Chrissy extended an invitation for J.J. to reach out to the family if he ever wanted.

Related: Mother Of Unvaccinated Girl Denied Kidney Transplant By Duke Says Daughter Has Secured Kidney