From the February 28, 2021, edition of CNN's State of the Union with Jake Tapper and Dana Bash

DANA BASH (ANCHOR): Let's talk about what you just heard from Sen. Bill Cassidy, that it's a joke that the White House has actually reached out in earnest to Republicans to negotiate on this COVID relief bill. What's your response to that?

SEN. CHRIS COONS (D-DE): Well, as you know, there were 10 Republican senators who were the first senators to sit down in the Oval Office with President Biden. This bill has the support not just of 76% of all Americans, but 60% of all Republicans in recent polling. So, as Sen. Cassidy said, we should listen to our voters, and the majority of the American people -- the overwhelming majority of the American people and of both parties -- are urging us to act. President Biden is someone who will work across the aisle. … The urgency of this issue means he's moving ahead and we're moving ahead with this $1.9 trillion bill that has broad support amongst voters of all backgrounds and parties. 

BASH: I hear you on that and talking is big, because there hasn’t been enough of that in this town. But talking is one thing and actually making concessions and doing deals on something like this is a different thing. And he’s saying that there was no real effort on that. That’s fair, don’t you think?

COONS: What is fair is that President Biden and the Democrats in Congress gave several weeks for there to be a serious negotiation that came close to the scope and range of this challenge. The proposals that came forward weren’t anything like the scale of the challenge, and so frankly, we’re moving ahead with a bill that probably will get no Republican votes in the Senate but will have broad Republican support in the country.