The Hill News

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) sketched out the areas where he and President Obama found agreement in their one-on-one meeting on Wednesday.

McConnell described his meeting with the president as a "cordial discussion" in which the two found potential areas of agreement amidst a sea of other issues on which they break sharply.

"There are areas where we could potentially reach agreement. He says he's for trade deals, so are we. We think free trade is helpful to America. He says he's for nuclear power. Most of my members are. He says he's for clean coal technology, we're for that," McConnell explained after the meeting on Fox News. "So I think there are some areas where we could make progress on a bipartisan basis."

Obama summoned McConnell to the White House on Wednesday for the first one-on-one meeting they two have had. The top Senate Republican has taken part in other congressional leadership meetings with the president,! but none before by himself.

The Kentucky Republican has proven a thorn in the side of Obama's agenda often in the past year and a half, having largely held GOP senators together on a number of key items on the president's agenda. The result has been a slowing down of the Senate, where a number of items have had to be punted by the Democrats in control of the chamber.

McConnell, perhaps in a nod to the frustrating relationship the two leaders have had, joked that he felt badly that Obama had to spend his 49th birthday yesterday with him.

"What I said to the president is it is a shame he to spend his birthday with me while his wife was in Spain," he said.