AMNA NAWAZ: For analysis on how Tim Scott's announcement shakes up the Republican presidential race and the other political news of the week, we turn to Amy Walter of The Cook Political Report With Amy Walter and Tamara Keith of NPR.

Good to see you both.

Thanks for being here.

So, Amy, as you know, Scott stands apart in the party for a number of reasons.

But when you look at the list of declared Republican presidential candidates even so far -- we will put this up in a second -- I want you to take a look at these folks, Nikki Haley, Asa Hutchinson, Vivek Ramaswamy, Tim Scott now, and former President Donald Trump.

How does Tim Scott distinguish himself from all the other candidates who are challenging the front-runner right now, Mr. Trump?

AMY WALTER, The Cook Political Report: That's right.

I think he is hoping that his message of hope and optimism is what is going to break through, especially against Donald Trump, who talks about he's the candidate of retribution.

Tim Scott says: I am a messenger of hope.

Now, is that what Republican voters want?

At this point, it sure doesn't seem like that is a message that is particularly appealing.

But I think, in the long game here, that Tim Scott would look to a primary where Donald Trump, and, well, somebody who's supposedly announcing very soon, Ron DeSantis, have a big, messy primary, both of them get sort of beaten up and bruised,and Tim Scott's message of optimism becomes more appealing.

That is the long term.

I think is his long -- also on the long-term strategy is Iowa and -- a state that has a considerable evangelical community.

And he is also somebody who runs with his faith very proudly.

And I think that is something he's going to use to try to use to his advantage in winning the very first state on the primary calendar.

AMNA NAWAZ: What strikes me, Tam, when you look at the list of declared candidates so far, the majority of those candidates are now people of color.

It's a very diverse field.

Meanwhile, the two front-runners are Donald Trump and someone who hasn't even declared yet, Ron DeSantis, but two white men who are really leveraging these grievance politics that Amy's talking about.

How does Scott fit into that mix?

TAMARA KEITH, National Public Radio: Well, his message is one that very much fits with the Republican message.

He is running as sort of anti-woke, but in a different way than Ron DeSantis.

He is -- he is running as an embodiment of the Republican idea that you can come from any background and lift yourself up by your bootstraps, and, therefore, you do not need the government to help people out.

And that is really where he's coming from and the message that he's selling.

And, as Amy said, the -- or sort of dovetailing off of what Amy said, former President Trump is perfectly happy to have Senator Scott in the race.

And the reason that he's perfectly happy to have Senator Scott in the race is this idea of a great brawl, of all of these candidates beating each other up, all of them, all of the undercards going after Ron DeSantis, and leaving room for former President Trump, like he did in 2015, to just sort of skate through as, you know, it's Trump and the others.

It's not clear that this will work.

In 2015 and 2016, we were looking at the model of 2012.

Now we're looking back at the model of 2015-2016.

But every single election cycle is different.

And there's this very open question, in particular, about Iowa.

Will former President Trump be able to get those evangelical voters who were uncomfortable with him, but ultimately supported him strongly, or will he not?

Or is there a lane for a DeSantis or a Tim Scott?

AMNA NAWAZ: Meanwhile, you have been tracking another announcement today, right, the -- one of the patriarchs of Delaware politics, U.S.

Senator Tom Carper, has announced his retirement.

What's likely to happen there?

How does that change the Senate map?

AMY WALTER: That's right.

The Senate map is really interesting for Democrats.

I mean, they're playing a lot of defense.

They have more seats up than Republicans.

And so any time you hear about a retirement, if you're a Democrat, you kind of cringe, like, uh-oh, what is this going to mean for us?

But I think there's a difference between seats that are open that provide an opportunity for Democrats, Democratic candidates who have been underrepresented in the Senate, and then there are the open seats that cause panic and cause problems for the Democratic Party.

This is an opportunity seat.

This is a seat that been held, as you pointed out, by Tom Carper, white Democrat.

His protege, actually she was his intern.

She worked in his office, Lisa Blunt Rochester, who's a congresswoman there, he basically endorsed her today.

She hasn't said anything herself.

AMNA NAWAZ: She hasn't announced she's running, but she has an endorsement, yes.

AMY WALTER: She hasn't announced she's running, but everybody's sort of waiting for this.

We also have another state where you have an opportunity for an African American woman.

In Maryland, the head of the - - one of the largest counties in the state, announcing her run to replace another Democrat, and in California as well, Dianne Feinstein leaving, Barbara Lee, congresswoman there.

So the possibility here to go from zero Black women in the Senate to three is there.

Certainly, to go from zero to one or two is very likely.

AMNA NAWAZ: Races to watch, indeed.

Meanwhile, today, one of the big stories we're watching, Tam, as you know, the face-to-face meeting between President Biden and House Speaker McCarthy.

We know they have been meeting, as we sit here right now, just after 6:30 on the East Coast.

What is the latest?

What do we expect to happen?

(LAUGHTER) TAMARA KEITH: You know, I think you asked a similar question or Geoff asked a similar question two weeks ago.

And the answer then was, it's not really clear how they land this plane.

It's not clear what the face-saving solution is that allows all of them to move forward and get the debt ceiling raised and avoid catastrophe.

Nothing has really changed since then in terms of clarity.

These meetings are continuing.

Over the weekend, they were expressing dread and saying that everyone was negotiating in bad faith and everyone was accusing everyone of things going wrong.

And now they're expressing optimism.

It's not clear that anything has truly changed to cause them to express optimism.

In fact, the statements that they made in the Oval Office not that long ago were really a restatement of positions that they have been stating for weeks now.

AMNA NAWAZ: Amy, today is May 22.

(LAUGHTER) AMY WALTER: I know.

AMNA NAWAZ: Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said June 1 is the hard deadline to raise that debt ceiling.

You heard Lisa reporting earlier it's unusual to get this close.

AMY WALTER: Yes, it's -- right, that, yes, we get really, really close, and it looks like, at the end, it finally comes together.

This does feel a little bit different.

At the same time, it does feel as if both sides are telling us, we have the elements in place for a deal, and it's going to be a deal.

And both sides are trying to figure out how do they massage it to their base, because you have on the left progressives saying, we're giving too much away, especially on issues like work requirements, and on the right saying, we're not doing enough to control spending.

But if you are -- especially if you're in the White House, landing this plane is critical.

Running in a recession is bad.

Running in a recession that was only made worse by a debt crisis and people looking at their 401(k) statement saying, how did that come to happen, this... (CROSSTALK) TAMARA KEITH: A recession by human error, in essence.

AMNA NAWAZ: Yes.

AMY WALTER: That's right.

That is one of those things that they probably cannot afford.

AMNA NAWAZ: That Biden cannot afford, correct?

AMY WALTER: Yes, that Biden cannot afford.

AMNA NAWAZ: Absolutely.

Amy Walter, Tamara Keith, we are going to be following this very closely.

I have a feeling we will talk about it again soon.

(CROSSTALK) AMNA NAWAZ: Thank you so much.

Good to see you both.

AMY WALTER: Thank you.