Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) called on President Joe Biden to negotiate with House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) over the debt ceiling to avoid a default on the nation's national debt.

McConnell painted Biden as the arbiter in debt ceiling negotiations, saying he was the only one who could avoid a default. He urged him to accept the reality of a divided government and be ready to give up ground.

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"This can only be solved by the one person in America who can sign something into law and by the majority of the opposite party, in divided government," McConnell told reporters on Tuesday. "Hopefully that's the direction in which we were headed now because we're running out of time."

“The United States is not going to default. It never has and it never will,” he continued. “However, elections have consequences. We now have divided government; we didn’t have divided government last year.”

McConnell made the appeal beside McCarthy, who said negotiations with Biden during a meeting Tuesday afternoon didn't go far. McCarthy, unlike McConnell, didn't immediately rule out a default but cast himself as unable to affect the result either way.

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“I've done everything in my power to make sure it will not default. We have passed a bill that raised the debt limit. Now, I haven't seen that in the Senate,” he said. “So, I don’t know.”

The United States risks defaulting on its debts if lawmakers can't come to a deal soon. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said the country could default by June 1 if the debt ceiling isn't raised.