Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Newsroom

Procedural Senate Vote to Extend Government Funding; Senators Who Supported Compromise Funding Deal Speak Out. Aired 9-10p ET

Aired November 09, 2025 - 21:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

[21:00:00]

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN Breaking News.

JESSICA DEAN, CNN ANCHOR: You are in the CNN NEWSROOM. Hi, everyone. I am Jessica Dean in New York tonight.

And we do have breaking news from the Senate floor, a rare Sunday Senate session. You are looking live as senators vote on a key procedural vote to move forward with this plan to reopen the government and extend government funding. We do know, again, waiting for the official tally, but as we've been watching the senators vote, which is ongoing, we have gotten to the magic number of 60.

That breaks the Democratic filibuster, which is what has been holding this up, of course, as the government has been shut down for the longest shutdown in history, 40 days. This has been voted on 14 times. This is the 15th time. And this time, it appears there are 60 votes to break that filibuster.

Now, there is some discontent within the Democratic Party. The Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer not supporting this legislation. The House Minority Leader, where this legislation will ultimately go, Hakeem Jeffries, not supporting this legislation.

Other Democrats, though, joining with Republicans, saying that this is a good deal. They are assured a vote on these tax subsidies and that there are other provisions they feel good about. So we watch to see. We know eight Democrats so far having voted with Republicans, if there will be more Democrats.

We have a team of reporters with us tonight. Our chief congressional correspondent, Manu Raju, is with us, senior White House reporter Betsy Klein is with us, Karen Finney is with us, Doug Heye is with us, an all-star team as we walk through all of this. I do want to start with Manu. Because, Manu, you're there in the action watching this all unfold. Last we spoke, eight Democrats had voted for this.

Where do things stand now?

MANU RAJU, CNN CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, eight Democrats still, and there's -- it looks like it's still at eight Democrats. This is happening in real time, and that is the magic number that is needed for this government shutdown, essentially to end within a matter of days, because of the math that requires -- with the expectation that Rand Paul, the Republican, will vote no on this bill. That means in the 53-47 Republican-led Senate, eight Democrats are going to be needed to break a filibuster, and they are on track to do just that, to the relief of so many Americans who have been hit so hard by this damaging shutdown, this crisis that has led millions of Americans now worried about even getting their food stamp benefits. Hundreds of thousands of federal workers not getting their paychecks. All flights across the country being delayed and canceled and the like with no end in sight.

But because of a bipartisan deal that was reached between largely rank-and-file senators on both sides of the aisle, despite the opposition of Democratic leaders, that deal is now moving ahead and is now poised to pass the United States Senate likely within a matter of days, maybe even as soon as tonight in the United States House. Within a couple of days expected to go to the president's desk then. But this critical vote sets the stage for all of that.

Now, this comes after days of furious negotiations behind the scenes with these members from both sides of the aisle, trying to figure out how to fund the federal government and deal with the chief Democratic concern about the rise in health care premiums as a result of the expiring subsidies that were plussed up during the COVID era under the Affordable Care Act, those subsidies set to expire at year's end. Democrats demanding initially that this be tied to the funding package. But President Trump in particular in recent days has taken a very hard line against extending those Obamacare subsidies.

[21:05:00]

And I'm told that by my sources up here that that changed the dynamic on Capitol Hill. A lot of those Democratic senators who had hoped that Trump potentially could come along to the idea of at least a short- term extension of those subsidies, now they realize that there was no dealing with President Trump on the health care issue. So they agreed as a compromise to do a separate, standalone vote on the Affordable Care Act not tied to the government funding package.

Which means that, yes, the vote will happen on the Affordable Care Act, but there is no guarantee. In fact, it is very likely that that bill will never become law.

And it's because of that compromise that has prompted furious pushback on the left flank of the House and Senate Democratic caucus. The Democratic leader, Hakeem Jeffrie, in the House says that they are going to fight this in the House. Chuck Schumer, the Senate Democratic leader, says that he is opposed to this plan.

And his incoming expected number two Senate Democrat, Brian Schatz, also is a no on this. But because of the pain caused by this shutdown, enough Democrats said enough is enough. And they agreed.

They want some concessions that they are now touting, including ensuring that federal workers who have been fired by the Trump administration could get their jobs back, and also ensuring that those food stamp benefits will continue to flow through towards the end of 2026. The government, under this plan, would reopen through January 30th. And that is going to become a big, big sigh of relief for so many Americans who are missing their paychecks because of this gridlock that has dominated Washington over the past month and a half -- Jessica.

DEAN: Yes, we have to remember that what's going on there on the Senate floor and in the House House chambers as well has really impacted so many Americans in red and blue states alike. It does not matter, Democrats, Republicans who are either hungry or can't pay their bills or worried about feeding their kids.

Manu, let's stay in touch. We watch for the final vote count on this particular vote. I do want to go to Betsy Klein, who is there at the White House.

Obviously, Betsy, as I was just noting, this has had major repercussions. The Trump administration has been in court fighting over the SNAP benefits and whether or not they can go out and are they required to put them out or not. Obviously, the transportation secretary and the FAA has called a bunch of flights and delayed them and canceled them.

What are we hearing from the White House tonight?

BETSY KLEIN, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: Well, we are waiting to hear any reaction from President Trump, refreshing his social media page, as Manu was speaking just now, waiting to see what he will say on this. But this is certainly a relief for the White House after this historically long government shutdown. It looks like there is momentum toward reopening the government.

And this has been a moment of 40 days of hardship and pain and uncertainty for more than one million federal workers, many of whom were deemed essential and required to report to work without getting paid all of this time. Many of these people live paycheck to paycheck, and this has been quite challenging for them. But this vote in the Senate comes as the shutdown really reached a new level of pain, impacting more Americans in recent days.

We saw that as Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy warned that flights would be reduced to a trickle. And that is particularly significant heading into that very busy Thanksgiving travel season. As well as SNAP benefits after a number of back and forth over this issue in the courts, the Trump administration ultimately saying that they would be providing partial, just 65 percent of those vital nutrition benefits to the 42 million Americans, about one in eight people, who depend upon them.

And as Manu laid out, the crux of this issue at the heart of the shutdown was those expiring Affordable Care Act, Obamacare subsidies. And Democrats really wanting to extend those. President Trump made very clear in recent days that he was not going to do so. He was not open to negotiating on that.

We also saw the president behave very differently during this government shutdown compared to back in 2019. That's the most recent 35-day, previous longest in history government shutdown. The president at the time, staying in Washington, hunkered down, skipping foreign travel.

This time around, we saw him make multiple trips to Mar-a-Lago, including this weekend, he traveled to the Middle East and to Asia. He posted photos of a major bathroom renovation.

And weeks into the shutdown, we saw that major renovation on the East Wing get underway. President Trump this time around behaving quite differently. And the president had warned, he had taken a bit of a different tone after Tuesday's election saying that Democrats weren't, in his view, shouldering enough blame for this election -- or sorry, for this shutdown during the election.

[21:10:00]

We saw him a few hours ago next to House Speaker Mike Johnson as he attended the Commander's Lions football game and the president returning to the White House a few hours ago saying that he believed we're getting very close to ending the shutdown. So you can believe that he has been watching this vote quite closely.

We expect him to weigh in any moment now. Jessica, we'll bring that to you when it does happen.

DEAN: OK, Betsy, please stand by. Thank you so much for that reporting. Let's bring in Karen Finney and Doug Heye. Good to see both of you as we kind of metabolize everything that's happening.

And I do think the Trump piece of this is interesting. Doug, Betsy makes a great point, which is in the last shutdown, which was the last longest shutdown that we had when President Trump was in office the first time, the president did stay in town and he was very hunkered down.

And this time it's been quite different. And his solution seemed to be to just push ending the filibuster on the Senate. That seemed to be what he kept -- and get rid of Obamacare.

What have you kind of been tracking as far as the president's involvement in all of this and how he, you know, has used this?

DOUG HEYE, REPUBLICAN STRATEGIST: Well, he stayed out of it, by and large. And I think ultimately that was the best course, despite, obviously, some message distractions of what happened to the East Wing at the White House, various Halloween parties and gilded events and things like that that were certainly not helpful to Republican communications. More interesting to me was the fact that the House of Representatives was gone.

When I worked in the 2013 shutdown, I remember getting text messages from friends asking if I was enjoying my vacation. And I would reply, reply rather rudely that it was 9:30 in the morning on a Saturday and I was at my desk. The House obviously has taken a very different tack on this and one that they feel has worked for them. And what's interesting, I think, Jessica, is both sides feel that they were winning on this. But in the past few days and having been at two airports over the weekend, I understand this. The messaging had changed.

And the first person who really alerted me on this was my old boss, Senator Richard Burr, who said on Thursday, I'm heart -- I'm starting to fear -- I'm starting to hear that there's some breaking and maybe some negotiations that can happen. We're starting to see this.

And obviously, it looks like this has now gotten to the 60 vote threshold in the Senate. We'll see what happens in the House. But there's real movement here.

And I think ultimately that is a win for everybody who's tired of dealing with this shutdown and frankly, all shutdowns. I think every shutdown is a loss for for voters overall, regardless of what the machinations may be in the meantime.

DEAN: Yes. And Karen, to Doug's point on on the House having been out, how do you think Americans are viewing that?

KAREN FINNEY, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: I you know, it doesn't look good. I mean, also because remember, the Republicans have been apparently home in their districts, but they surely have not been out talking to voters. Because I imagine if they had, you would have heard more Republicans from the House side actually putting some pressure on trying to negotiate a way out of this. Instead, they seem to be in like witness protection, laying low, popping up every once in a while here and there, you know, for television TV spots.

So and I don't think I don't ever think it looks good. If you are someone who is trying to say you are a leader in this country, that you are not somewhere trying to be part of the solution. I actually don't think it looked good for the president, not just that, you know, he was more focused on tearing down the East Wing and bailing out Argentina, but also that he did not seem to be part of negotiations or part of trying to get a deal.

Instead, he was more focused on going to court, as I mentioned in the last hour, to try to stop SNAP benefits going to children and seniors and some of our most needy in this country.

Last thing real quick, I'm also hearing that one of the because now things are starting to seep out. I'm also hearing that there was a lot of pressure on the Republicans. Trump had been putting a lot of pressure on Republicans over the filibuster. We've heard him talking about this --

DEAN: Yes.

FINNEY: -- but apparently behind the scenes, just from what I'm hearing, that was intensifying. And he was making certain demands that may have actually, you know, put the Republicans in a place where they went to Democrats and said, look, guys, this is this is really what we're negotiating with here. So we'll find out more as the days progress. But that's one of the things I'm starting to hear now.

DEAN: Yes, that is an interesting piece of this. Doug, do you think that that played into this?

HEYE: It's a distraction for Republicans who didn't want to talk about this and maybe support it. And it's part of how our politics have been become upside down over the past five years, 10 years, 15 years. And I say that because if you had told me that Republicans would spend a month talking about how they support a clean CR and Democrats are clinging to the filibuster, I would have told you we're on the bizarro world and there's no way that this could happen.

But that's exactly where we've been over this past month plus now and where we find ourselves potentially moving forward.

[21:15:00]

It's why I think a deal right now was was important for everyone involved. But, Jessica, also, I would tell you, when this -- when this shutdown happened and previous shutdowns, they never really have an electoral impact a year out. So as we as we focus, especially in Washington, D.C., really constantly on the shutdown and every single move that John Thune makes or Hakeem Jeffrey makes or whomever, voters aren't necessarily focused on it until it really affects them personally. And then they move on to the next thing.

The only thing to me that is potentially different here is if we now have a deal that isn't accepted in the House of Representatives for some reason. And I would say ultimately it's because the issue of fighting is more important quite often politically than actually getting things done. Then that could have an impact in November.

But if we reach a deal and this passes, the Senate passes the House and Donald Trump signs it. We're going to forget about this pretty quickly.

DEAN: It is interesting, Karen. I was just thinking that as Doug was talking about how this could potentially become a litmus test just in the in the moment. Maybe maybe he's right.

Maybe it all passes and everyone forgets about it. We move on. But there's also where this becomes a litmus test for Democrats heading into the midterms.

You know, do you fight or do you do you compromise?

FINNEY: Yes, well, look, I think, though, let's not -- I mean, we are in bizarro world. I love that analogy, Doug, because we've been here one time before for about four years and we're back, turns out. And part of this time, what is different, this issue of the economy is not going away.

Americans are going to be very conscientious as they dip into their pocketbooks and think about Thanksgiving and Christmas. Groceries are expensive. Gas prices -- I don't know when Trump talks about two dollar gas. I don't know where he's talking about. Gas is still expensive.

You know, toys, presents, that's all going to be for those who are even able to do that for the holidays -- all very expensive. And that I do think is going to carry over into next year because I don't see this president change.

He does not seem to be interested in actually doing things to lower costs. I mean, we heard him on Wednesday and Thursday talking about, you know, this idea of affordability as if it was a pipe dream rather than a real concern. And so I do think some of the issues that have been front and center as part of the shutdown, health care costs being among one of the biggest drivers, frankly, as we know, of debt and frankly, of, you know, failures that people end up having, you know, one health care crisis can basically bankrupt you.

So I think those issues are going to continue to be top of mind for voters, whether or not how they felt about how the shutdown ended, this idea of costs and affordability and the issues that are driving that, including the tariffs, will remain front and center.

DEAN: All right, Doug and Karen, stay with us again. We're -- we are watching the Senate floor. We have reached the 60 vote threshold.

We are waiting for the final vote tally. That is Senator Jeanne Shaheen from New Hampshire, one of the negotiators, a Democrat. Let's listen to what she's saying.

SEN. JEANNE SHAHEEN (D-NH): We'll give Democrats control of the Senate floor for a vote on one of our top legislative priorities, extending the Affordable Care Act premium tax credits. This is important when Republicans control every branch of government. The agreement reinstates thousands of fired federal workers and provides back pay to more than a million others.

It advances three bipartisan funding bills for agriculture and FDA, for military construction and veterans affairs and for the legislative branch. It restores a real bipartisan appropriations budget process. Republicans control the White House, the Senate and the House, and they made clear over a series of weeks, including just this week, that this was as far as they would go as part of the shutdown talks.

This was the only deal on the table. It was our best chance to reopen the government and immediately begin negotiations to extend the ACA tax credits that tens of millions of Americans rely on to keep costs down. Now, for me in New Hampshire, not only will it mean that 42 million Americans, including 75,000 in my state, will be able to keep food on the table, 29,000 Granite State families will be able to heat their homes this winter, 19,000 federal workers in New Hampshire, including more than 3,000 at the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard, will finally get paid.

Now, I understand that not all of my Democratic colleagues are satisfied with this agreement, but waiting another week or another month wouldn't deliver a better outcome. It would only mean more harm for families in New Hampshire and all across the country. And this is the only the first step.

So let me be clear.

[21:20:00]

No one in the Senate chamber wants to extend the ACA tax credits more than I do. I introduced that legislation in 2019. I fought successfully to pass it in 2021 and 2023. And I'm 100 percent committed to getting this done.

President Trump, Speaker Johnson, and Leader Thune, along with many rank-and-file Republicans, say they want to keep health care premiums at their current rate. With the government reopened, we must move quickly to deliver on that promise and to keep health care premiums affordable.

The American people are counting on us to get this done -- Senator King.

SEN. ANGUS KING (I-ME): I want to emphasize what Senator Shaheen just said. Those of us here and those of us certainly participating in the Democratic caucus are 100 percent committed to working on the issue of the ACA premium tax credits and preserving access to health care for millions of Americans.

The question before us is, how's the best way to get there? And it was our judgment, after six weeks, going on seven weeks of this shutdown, that that path wasn't working. The test was last week, when the Majority Leader put forward a proposal that was pretty simple, straightforward one-year extension of the tax credits.

It was met with universal opposition in the Republican caucus. It wasn't going to happen. So the question before us, before those of us here who decided to vote yes tonight, the question was, does the shutdown further the goal of achieving some needed support for the extension of the tax credits?

Our judgment was that it will not -- it would not produce that result. And the evidence for that is almost seven weeks of fruitless attempts to make that happen. Would it change in a week or another week or after Thanksgiving or Christmas?

And there's no evidence that it would. What there is evidence of is the harm that the shutdown is doing to the country, what it's doing to millions of federal workers, but also what it's doing to tens of millions of recipients of SNAP. This is a true crisis for those individuals.

Soup kitchens can't fill the gap. Food pantries can't fill the gap. SNAP is an essential part of the food provision program in this country.

And so we were faced with a strategy or a series of steps that wasn't working to achieve the goal we wanted with regard to the ACA, but it was at the same time creating hardship and difficulty for millions of people across this country. So I believe that we are closer tonight to a vote on the ACA tax credits than we were this morning. Because part of this agreement, and you heard the majority leader on the floor today say he is committed to putting a bill on the floor before the second week in December that would be drafted by the Democrats concerning health care and the ACA.

That is a big step because otherwise there's no way for the minority to get a bill onto the floor of the U.S. Senate. It has to be through the office of the majority leader. So that was a major step to get the majority leader to agree to make that commitment tonight on the Senate floor.

So the sum is we are closer to the possibility of work on the ACA tax credits for the people of this country than we were yesterday and then we were a week ago, two weeks ago, or a month ago. So this agreement tonight is a win for the American people and it's a win for those people that are so insistent that I'm hearing from all the time, protect our health care. Our judgment is the best way to do that is to get a bill on the floor.

Is there a guarantee it will pass? No. Is it a guarantee it will pass in the House?

There is actually some very strong interest in the House. A possibility of a bipartisan bill and to get a discharge petition and then perhaps we're on the way. And we have that expression from Republican senators who are interested in working on a bill that will deal with the ACA issue and perhaps additional health care issues at the same time.

So what happened tonight that will deal with the ACA issue and perhaps additional health care issues at the same time. So what happened tonight is not the closing of a chapter, it's the opening of an opportunity. What the chapter does close is the damaging shutdown that is only getting worse, that is only going to impact more and more people and it's an opportunity for us to move forward on behalf of all the people of this country on the issue of health care but also on making the federal government function.

Thank you.

SEN. MAGGIE HASSAN (D-NH): Well good evening everybody. At a time when families desperately need relief, Washington's dysfunction is making life harder for families and the last 39 days are proof of that. A record-long government shutdown paired with record high health insurance cost increases is not the kind of history that the American people want Congress to make.

Over the last several weeks I've heard from granite staters who can't afford a doubling of their health insurance costs. I've also heard from families about the deep pain that the government shutdown has caused, made worse by a president who illegally and repeatedly chose to cut off help for families who are just trying to buy groceries. After weeks of bipartisan conversations, I voted today to reopen the government so that we can get back to the work of helping granite staters. This agreement funds SNAP and food assistance programs, ensures that law enforcement, air traffic controllers and other federal workers get paid, reverses the president's recent reckless layoffs and prevents them from happening in the future. And crucially gives Congress a clear path forward to protecting people's health care.

Our work to deliver relief for families now enters an important phase. Congress has one month to engage in serious bipartisan negotiations to extend the Affordable Care Act's expiring tax cuts that help people afford their health insurance.

And let's be really clear, part of what has been happening is the time period to make that meaningful extension of these tax cuts has been dwindling. We are getting closer and closer to the time in which families have to decide whether they can buy their health insurance or not and enroll in health insurance in this coming year.

So my Democratic colleagues and I have been ready to work on this issue, on extending these tax cuts for months. With the government reopening shortly, Senate Republicans now finally have to come to the table. Or make no mistake, Americans will remember who stood in the way.

So I urge Speaker Johnson to finally return the House of Representatives into session and quickly reopen the government.

And I urge all Americans in communities red, blue, and purple to continue to speak out about the importance of affordable health care so that families across America can get that critical care that they need. Thank you.

Thank you. And I thank my colleagues for their good work. The vote tonight, and you've heard all of us talking about this, the vote tonight was crucial to open the government because too many Americans, hard-working individuals, seniors, children were suffering.

I know in Nevada, particularly that is based on a service industry, tourism and travel, we are doubly hit. Tariffs, bad policies of this administration, and the shutdown was having an impact on travel to our state and quite honestly across the country. But it wasn't just that.

We have federal workers that were suffering. We have TSA agents. We have airport controllers.

And we were seeing lines to our food banks in northern Nevada. These were lines that I hadn't seen since the pandemic. And the stories were horrific.

SEN. CATHERINE CORTEZ MASTO (D-NV): Seniors in line needing food because they couldn't get access to the food that they usually would get at the federal level. One man came and refused to say who he was because he was embarrassed and said, I shouldn't be here, but he needed the food. Mothers coming to the food bank to get food for their children.

My colleagues know that opening the government was key to stopping that pain.

[21:30:00]

But here's the thing. We can open the government and we can still fight to address this looming health care crisis. It is true.

Right now in our states and across the country, Americans are seeing higher costs, higher premiums for their Affordable Care Act. These are people that need access to health care. I have families that rely on the Affordable Care Act and these subsidies so that their children who have a rare disease can access their medication.

I have small businesses who rely on the Affordable Care Act and the subsidies to help cover the cost for their employees. This is a fight that the Republicans need to understand is not just happening in Nevada. It is happening across the country in every state, including those red states.

This fight tonight is -- I agree with Senator Angus -- is just the beginning. This is the beginning to show and fight for Americans across the country.

Let me just say this. With the government open, we can focus on passing a full bipartisan budget for 2026 that starts with a minibus that will restore funding that President Trump cut. It delivers millions of dollars in critical funding to states like Nevada all across the country. And it, you will hear, blocks the administration from future rifts.

We have an opportunity also to put Republicans on the record on the ACA. Do they really -- are they committed to doing this? Are they committed?

Leader Thune said he would come to the table on a health care once the government was open, and now he must follow through. If Republicans want to join us in lowering costs for working families, they have the perfect opportunity to show the American public.

I expect Republicans to be at the table in the next few weeks. I expect the White House to be at the table and if they do choose not to come to the table, they can own the disastrous premium increases that will continue to rise. They will own the fact that Americans across this country are going to lose access to health care.

We were elected in the Senate to work on real solutions that help working families. It's our responsibility to work not only here amongst ourselves, but across the aisle to solve these problems for the Americans, make their lives a little bit easier. And that's what we have done tonight.

SEN. TIM KAINE (D-VA): So, hey, everybody. I'm the cleanup hitter because I joined this group the last. I joined it 48 hours ago, not for lack of interest.

And I got to applaud Jeanne Shaheen and this group because they have been having open meetings that anybody could participate in on negotiation. But I had my hands full focused on the Virginia elections until Wednesday morning. And as soon as that was over, I have now engaged and engaged with a particular purpose in mind.

I knew the Democratic appropriators, led by Patty Murray, were going to do the very best job they could to get these three approach bills queued up and moving forward. A bill, for example, that has very robust SNAP funding, very robust funding for the VA. I had confidence in that.

And I had confidence in these guys that they were going to get the best possible deal they could get from Republicans on the ACA. We were in a situation where SNAP recipients were suffering and there was no guarantee we would ever get to an ACA solution. Now we've got robust SNAP funding and a guaranteed vote, not a guaranteed outcome, but a guaranteed vote on ACA tax credits.

But I engaged on the issue that I've been talking about for a month on the floor to Senator Thune, Katie Britt, Lindsey Graham, James Lankford, anybody who had listened to me on the Republican side. I've said what I need in Virginia with 320,000 federal employees who live in households that probably encompass nearly 650,000 or 700,000 residents in my state. I need a moratorium on mischief.

My Virginians have been suffering under this administration. The shutdown started on January 20. I need a moratorium on the punishing of the federal workforce. That's what I need.

And so I joined this group to make sure that we could get important protections for federal employees. And what we have in this bill is the restoration of all the furloughed employees and a guarantee of their back pay, the restoration of all RIFT employees who got RIFT after October 1 with all of their back pay and a guarantee of no RIFTs, no RIFTs going forward.

Two million federal workers, not just my 300,000, two million federal workers who are not uniformed military now have a guarantee of no RIFTs going forward.

[21:35:00]

So they don't have to go into the holiday season with anxiety about what's going to show up on their e-mail one morning at 5:30 a.m. That's a big win for two million federal employees and added together with these other ingredients of robust appropriations bills and a guaranteed path forward to vote on fixing the ACA. That made me sign on and say, yes, we can do it. I had a number of Republicans on the floor tonight said, we were amazed that you got that no RIFT guarantee in there.

And I'm glad that we did and we all worked so hard in it together. And I have huge respect for my colleagues who made this happen. Thanks.

SHAHEEN: Yes.

RAJU: You say you're fighting on the Affordable Care Act, but what do you say to your colleagues who say this isn't a fight? This is a capitulation. You're putting together, you're agreeing to a vote on a bill that it almost certainly will not become law.

And you're allowing that to happen.

SHAHEEN: Well, first of all, there was as long as the government shut down, the clear statement from Senator Thune and the Republican majority and they control the Senate, the House, the White House, was we will not talk about health care with you. So there was no vote that we were going to get on the Affordable Care Act -- premium tax credits.

We have a guaranteed vote by a guaranteed date on a bill that we will write. Not that the Republicans will write, although I do think it's important for us to engage with them because we need a bipartisan bill that we know is going to get enacted to provide the relief that Americans need. And I think there's a commitment on the part of many of our colleagues to do that.

RAJU: But there's no guarantee this will become law.

SHAHEEN: There was never a guarantee that it would become law.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Just to follow up on that, Senator, because I understand that this vote will happen, but a vote on the extending the tax credits, it does not guarantee that it's going to happen. So how do you explain, though, to your constituents why it was worth it to put up this fight for so long when in the end you did not get your key demand?

KING: Because it wasn't working. How long would it take to not get a response to say it isn't working? In other words, it's been six weeks.

There's been no -- the Republicans made it clear they weren't going to discuss the health care issue, the Affordable Care Act tax credits until the shutdown was over. We tried to keep working that for six weeks. It didn't happen.

The vote that we have, there's not a guarantee for sure. It's more of a guarantee --here's the way I would put it.

As I assessed it, there was zero chance of dealing with the ACA issue as long as the shutdown continued. Now, I don't know, 50-50? But there's a lot better chance now than there was this morning, because nothing was happening and there was no evidence that another week or another two weeks or Thanksgiving or Christmas was suddenly the Republicans were to come to us and say, oh, we want to now talk about the ACA.

If they weren't going to do it by now, what's going to change in the next two weeks that's going to make them do it? And that was really -- that was really the assessment. Again, I would say, as of this morning, there was a zero chance of having us work on the ACA.

Now there's a measurable chance. Will it be everything that everybody wanted? No, because we need 60 votes. And so there's going to be a negotiation. But Republicans have already started saying, well, here, you know, if this, we did this or did that, maybe we can get there. So I would take -- I would take a reasonable chance against no chance every day.

And that's -- and the other piece is -- and we didn't really emphasize this -- there are three important appropriations bills in this that would lock and SNAP for the rest of the year at a very substantial rate, plus other other benefits. Veterans funding is guaranteed if we can get these three bills through.

So there's a plus on that. And I think the odds are that we have a better chance of doing something about the ACA than we did not going into this. At some point, you have to -- you have to decide, you know, what what is the best strategic step forward?

And we believe that the evidence is that what we were doing wasn't working. And therefore, let's try something else.

HASSAN: The real question is, why would a president of the United States pit hungry children against sick children? And that is what President Trump has done. I mean, this is outrageous.

[21:40:00]

We can't reach agreement on government funding, so the government shuts down. And even though the law is clear that he could fund SNAP benefits during the shutdown, he did not. And then he also said, and by the way, I don't really care if people's health insurance premiums get so high, they can't afford their care. That's on Donald Trump.

My vote today was to do two things, both equally morally important and imperative. One is to make sure that the government is functioning so that our kids eat, so that our elderly citizens eat, so that our air traffic controllers can get some sleep and earn money, get paid while they are working. So that our veterans are protected.

And continue the fight to a realistic platform to get the premium tax cuts done. And if that is not successful, then shame on the Republican Party and shame on Donald Trump. But the American people will see who stands with them on health care and who does not.

And that will be the platform of the next stage of the fight. I hope we can find bipartisan agreement on an extension of those premium tax credits. In New Hampshire, a couple of, who are 60 years old or so, earning $85,000 a year, are seeing like a $15,000 increase in their insurance premiums.

This has to get fixed. And we have about a month to do it before the harm gets to be irreparable. And again, if the Republicans can't come to the table and do something reasonable on this and make sure that people can afford their health care and that the whole private commercial market also doesn't see skyrocketing increases, then shame on them.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Senator? What do you say to the millions of Americans who are already in the Obamacare exchanges, seeing premiums skyrocketed, who were hoping because of what you all said that they would get answers on what their premiums would be now, but have to wait weeks longer since you've decided to open the government without immediate action on the subsidies?

SHAHEEN: Well, as Senator Hassan said so well, the Republicans weren't providing any commitment or even a willingness to vote or a willingness to discuss extending the premium tax credits. We have the opportunity to do that now and we will hold their feet to the fire.

KAINE: And just quick, most of us up here in the group of eight that voted for this tonight have voted repeatedly with the Democratic strategy of we're not opening and we want you to take action on the ACA tax credit. But after 40 days, it wasn't going to work. So here we are in a situation and this was the reality.

SNAP recipients suffering, nothing happening on ACA. The vote tonight will be full -- and not just last year's but full and robust SNAP funding for SNAP recipients and a path on the ACA. So from suffering and no path, we've now got robust benefits and a path.

And that's what we tell our constituents.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Senator, if I could just ask, there's already calls now from Democrats in the House that are saying Leader Schumer should step aside. He should be replaced. You know, the eight of you today voting with Republicans to advance this plan to reopen the government.

Does that just further the divides within the Democratic Party right now?

SHAHEEN: No. When I talk to my constituents in New Hampshire, you know what they say to me? They say, why can't you all just work together to address the problems that are facing this country?

We put the Senate back on a path to start doing that today and we're going to continue to work that way.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: All right, one last question. If the president doesn't agree and Republicans block the suspension of ACA subsidies, would you guys be willing to vote again against government funding in January when this funding runs out?

SHAHEEN: That's certainly an option that I think everybody will consider. Thank you all.

HASSAN: Thank you all.

DEAN: All right, you've been listening to the four Democratic and independent senator there, Angus King, who negotiated this bipartisan deal that is being the first step of which is being voted on as we speak. That vote still open on the Senate floor. We're waiting for just a few more votes to come in.

But eight Democrats joining Republicans in what will likely unlock the next steps to go forward with this process and potentially reopen the government.

We're going to take a quick break. We'll be right back.

[21:45:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

DEAN: And welcome back. We are covering breaking news watching the Senate floor. It is a rare Sunday session for the U.S. Senate as they are voting now to -- for this first vote to advance what legislation that could potentially open the government. It is a bipartisan agreement negotiated by a handful of Democratic senators who we just heard from speaking there. I do want to bring in Karen Finney, Doug Heye and Tim Naftali to talk more about this. And Karen, I really want to start first with you.

I'm curious what you were thinking when you were hearing from Tim Kaine and Jeanne Shaheen and Maggie Hassan and others explaining why they thought this was the best way forward. There are some Democrats who are very upset about this tonight.

FINNEY: There are. I mean, look, there's a couple of things. I think it was important what they pointed out.

I think, as you've heard me say, one of the things the American people learned, unfortunately, is that this president would let people starve. I mean, he was in court trying to prevent having to pay SNAP benefits. Also, I think the Republicans are on the hook, at least for a conversation about health care.

What's disappointing is that Democrats did not win any kind of concession around actually either extending those subsidies while they try to negotiate sort of or come up with ways to lower costs or bend that cost curve. So it's sort of, you know, look, they were putting the best face on it that they could. And they were talking about the very real pain, particularly in a state like Virginia, which has the highest number of federal workers, where people are in a lot of pain.

They're in a lot of economic pain. And on top of that, this economy is not good. Costs are still high. Inflation is still high.

[21:50:00]

So what I heard was, you know, members in the middle who were feeling the pressure, who are feeling like, I mean, you heard one of them say, unfortunately, what they were trying to do was not working.

And that's where people are going to be upset. And unfortunately, what we're now going to see, Senator King, great that they got these concessions around SNAP. I'm glad that people will get paid and all of that.

But now as it goes to the House, the conversation becomes, what are Republicans in the House going to do? Are they going to also meet the Republicans in the Senate and say, we too will not only offer a vote, but we will also come to the table and have some conversations about how we lower costs. So it was a very, you know, it was interesting as I was watching, the last thing I'll say here is, I was hearing the very real differences between how senators think and how the House members think --

DEAN: Yes.

FINNEY: -- about how to proceed on these kinds of measures.

DEAN: Certainly. And Doug, to that point, as a House guy, I mean, now it's back in Mike Johnson's court. He's got to get everybody back to D.C. And then what happens, and Karen makes a great point, which is, will he agree to these provisions that the Republican senators have?

HEYE: Yes, look, the first challenge is getting people back, right? The House is not going to vote on this tomorrow. And it's going to take a few days for all of this to sort out.

And everybody who's coming back from states that aren't, you know, in close driving distance from Washington, D.C., are going to have to still deal with the airport issues that we've been dealing with for a while now. But Republicans still remain.

There are always differences between the House and Senate, regardless of party. That is a constant in Washington. But Republicans have been remarkably unified here. You've seen, other than Rand Paul basically breaking and Thomas Massey, so two Republicans from Kentucky, Republicans have been startlingly unified here.

And it's where these cracks in Democrats are really showing right now and really threaten where Democrats are going to be, not just in the coming week, but in the coming months. And I say that because I saw this, Jessica, play up close in the House of Representatives. When I heard the word fight, and you got to fight and you got to fight harder, what I saw was Republicans realizing they didn't have a strategy to land a punch, to knock down their opponent, to win a round.

And this is exactly where Democrats are right now. And so it's not a surprise to me that you see Chuck Schumer voting against it because he has to fight. And he has to fight to make sure that AOC doesn't replace him.

He's been, you know, Chuck Schumer was elected before -- or on the same day Ronald Reagan was. He's sworn in a few weeks before him. And he wants to stick around even longer.

And to do that in New York Democratic politics, which has been interesting over the past week, he's got to show that he's a fighter. But that's not good enough for a lot of House Democrats. So how this all plays out in the coming days, weeks, and months is going to be very interesting.

And I would caution my Democratic friends, the more you hear the word fight, the more likely you are here -- the more likely you are to know that there's not a strategy to win. And that's what we've seen because this deal was put in place in front of Democrats basically six weeks ago and they didn't want to deal with it then.

DEAN: Tim, help us zoom out for a minute. And I think sometimes when you're talking to people, when I talk to my friends who don't really dip into politics or out, they're, you know, has it always been like this? This is the longest government shutdown in history.

It seems more dysfunctional than ever. The average American just wants their government to work. Help people understand where we fall in this moment of our nation's history and this particular shutdown and these particular dynamics that we are seeing play out.

TIM NAFTALI, CNN PRESIDENTIAL HISTORIAN: Well, Jessica, I want to zoom out and I want to remind people that in late September, before this shutdown started, people wondered whether the Democratic Party was moribund, whether it had any fight in it. And whether, and at the time the president was running the table. I mean, he -- all the political momentum was with President Trump.

Right now, the political momentum in this country has shifted to the Democrats. Now, it's not all because of the shutdown, but Tuesday was -- and the president has admitted it -- a huge defeat for the Republicans. Now, New York is a special case, but New Jersey and Virginia both were places where Republicans would have wanted to do much better.

So, from the standpoint, historically, of this shutdown, it has been very helpful to Democrats. Now, since it's been helpful to Democrats, they've seen that the president is willing to increase the pain on the American people, whether it's through the threat of Thanksgiving travel woes, the fact that the federal government is not going to pay all the SNAP payments. There are reasons to believe that this president was going to ratchet up the pressure and make this a more painful shutdown.

[20:55:00]

Now, under those circumstances, it wasn't clear -- because it's always hard to predict in politics -- that the Democrats would escape any blame for all the new pain that Americans would be feeling in the next few weeks if the shutdown continued. So why would the Democrats continue a shutdown if they'd already won it?

Now, people will argue, well, they were after these subsidies. But we know Donald Trump. Anybody who studied this man carefully recognizes that Trump 2.0 is an effort to reverse things that happened in his first term that he didn't like. He is still, I'm sure, smarting over John McCain's vote to save ACA.

We also know that he has a prosecutor who's looking for ways to indict former President Barack Obama. In what universe would the House, controlled by Speaker Johnson, an ally of Donald Trump's, vote for anything that would help the Affordable Care Act?

In what universe? It was not going to ever happen. So Democrats, I'm sure, understood that. But what they needed to do was to show they had some fight in them. And they did. And this shutdown has not helped Donald Trump. And he knows it.

So I think we've seen tonight good old-fashioned American pragmatism. We've always been very good at it. And we continue to be good at it.

And people who argue that this is a matter of conciliation or of giving up or -- no, no, no. The Democrats had to show they were alive. They put pressure. They recognized the President didn't care how much pain the American people felt.

And so they took their win and moved on.

DEAN: And here we are. Yes.

NAFTALI: And here we are.

DEAN: Here we are. Tim, thank you. Doug, Karen, we are out of time. But I really thank you to all of you for staying up late with us tonight. Thank you for watching at home. We are still waiting for those final votes in the Senate to be cast.

But again, we are on the precipice of this starting to really move quickly to potentially end this government shutdown. Our special coverage continues right after a quick break. Have a great night, everyone.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)