## shutdown Ends, Revealing Democratic Divisions
Following the recent resolution of the government shutdown – the longest in U.S. history – a panel discussion on *Washington Week With The Atlantic* explored the deal brokered by moderate lawmakers and Senate Republicans, and the resulting fallout within the Democratic Party.
The end of the shutdown has been met with internal frustration among some Democrats, a sentiment now becoming public, according to Nancy Cordes, chief White House correspondent at CBS News. Cordes reported that certain Senate Democrats believed initiating the shutdown was a calculated risk, intended to ultimately gain leverage over Republicans as the situation persisted.
“There are Senate Democrats who feel that the whole point of this risky enterprise in the first place, triggering a shutdown, was because eventually, over time, they felt that they would gain enough leverage over Republicans,” Cordes stated.
Despite the growing consequences of the shutdown – including mounting flight delays and the loss of crucial food assistance for SNAP beneficiaries – these Democrats reportedly felt they were nearing a point where Republicans would be significantly pressured. “Although ‘the pain was mounting; yes, flight delays were mounting; yes, SNAP beneficiaries were starting to lose very crucial food assistance,'” Cordes noted, “they felt that they were getting closer to putting Republicans in a very uncomfortable situation.”
Ultimately, however, eight Senate Democrats chose to end the standoff, preventing a definitive test of that strategy. “We’ll never know if they were right or not, as these eight Senate Democrats said that they weren’t willing to find out,” Cordes concluded.
The discussion featured insights from Natalie Andrews, a White House correspondent at *The Wall Street Journal*; Cordes; Andrew Desiderio, a senior congressional reporter for *Punchbowl News*; and Jeff Mason, a White House correspondent at Reuters, alongside guest moderator and *The Atlantic* staff writer Vivian Salama.
The full episode can be viewed here.
