VIVIAN SALAMA: I do want to turn to the government shutdown that is no longer, after 43 days, the longest government shutdown in our nation's history is over and President Trump signed in a bill into law this week to get the government reopened.

It passed because of eight senators, seven Democrats, and an independent, as well as six in the House who broke with their party.

Nancy, many Republicans are now accusing the eight senators in particular who voted with Republicans of betraying the party at the expense of healthcare and other important issues.

Explain that, how that dynamic is playing out.

NANCY CORDES: You know, there is a lot of frustration in the party right now, and it has spilled out into public view.

There are Senate Democrats who feel that, you know, 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 to force them to negotiate and compromise over Obamacare premium subsidies that are about to expire.

And, yes, the pain was mounting.

Yes, flight delays were mounting.

Yes, SNAP beneficiaries were starting to lose very crucial food assistance, but they felt that, you know, they were getting closer to putting Republicans in a very uncomfortable situation, and that finally Republicans would have to come to the table.

Now, we'll never know if they were right or not because these eight Senate Democrats said that they weren't willing to find out that they felt that the pain was not worth, you know, the possibility of the outcome that they were seeking.

And so they went ahead and negotiated.

They did succeed in putting the issue front and center for the American people.

And polls show that, in the end, everybody kind of gets the blame for a shutdown typically, but other than that, you know, it's not very clear what they gained from allowing the government to stay closed for 40 days or so.

VIVIAN SALAMA: And at the heart of this, Natalie, were Obamacare subsidies that are set to expire, that was part of the holdout.

Where do we stand at this point?

NATALIE ANDREWS: They're still going to expire at the end of the year.

And this is part of the problem with the Congress has been legislating through tax bills that put expiration dates on policy for years.

The Republicans did it.

They did it this year.

Tax on tips has an expiration date, things like that.

So, these subsidies were put in place by Democrats when they had -- when they were in charge in Congress.

They did it the same method that Republicans used to pass their tax bill.

So, it has an expiration date and it's going to hit people are already realizing how much their subsidies or how much their healthcare is increased without those subsidies.

And it does have a trickle effect to people who get their insurance from the private sector, from their employer, because as people's healthcare goes up, they tend to not be on healthcare.

And insurers know that, and hospitals know that, so they charge more.

And if there's no action by the end of the year, then those subsidy -- or then the prices that people see on their healthcare right now will stay in effect.

VIVIAN SALAMA: Andrew, talk to us a little bit about Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer.

He's gotten a lot of blame from his party, even though he voted no and privately was saying that he didn't feel comfortable moving forward, but he's getting the blame nonetheless.

ANDREW DESIDERIO: I thought it was very interesting that Senator Jeanne Shaheen, who kind of led the aid of them to vote for this and was negotiating with Republicans, she would not pointedly answer the question of did Senator Schumer at least support you sitting down with these Republicans to try to cut a deal, right?

Typically, in the past when we have these crises on Capitol Hill, you would see a gang form, right?

Whether formal or informal, it would be a leader to leader conversation.

Senate Majority leader John Thune realized early on that Chuck Schumer was not going to be part of the solution to this, right?

For his sort of political benefit, Chuck Schumer had to be seen as basically fighting this fight the entire way because of how poorly he managed this back in March.

Now he has bettered his standing a little bit with his caucus.

He's not going to be forced out, right?

There's this, you know, a lot of chatter online about that.

That's not going to happen, right?

The question is, will he be able to be reelected as the Democratic leader for the next Congress?

Those elections will happen after the 2026 midterms.

I do think another element of this is really notable too when it comes to the Democratic split and how much Democrats really have been fighting amongst themselves on this issue.

Senator Shaheen, who I just mentioned, who was leading this effort, she told us earlier this week that on Sunday, when they realized that they had the votes for this, more Democrats than just that eight came to her and said, I'm going to vote for this on the floor.

And then just those eight senators from the Democratic side of the aisle ended up voting for it and it ended up getting exactly 60 votes, right?

So, if there was another Democrat that peeled off the entire deal would've collapsed.

And nobody likes to be that 60th vote when you've cut a deal like this, right, because of the criticism you're going to get.

I think the point Senator Shaheen was underscoring was that so many of them felt, I don't know if bullied is the right word, but they felt like there was so much pressure from the left, from progressives, to hold the line such that so many of them who came to her earlier in the day and said, hey, we're going to actually have 12 to 15 Democrats supporting this ended up peeling off by the time the vote happened and just barely got through.

VIVIAN SALAMA: I read a fascinating statistic this week that the average age of the eight senators who voted to side with Republicans was 70.

ANDREW DESIDERIO: Right.

VIVIAN SALAMA: And, you know, we were talking about the New York City mayoral race and sort of the generational divide in the Democrats who voted for Zohran Mamdani.

Did that play out in this as well?

ANDREW DESIDERIO: Absolutely.

And I think one, one of the biggest trends in the Senate over the last 10 to 15 years has been the hollowing out of the middle, right?

The middle of the Senate, Democrats and Republicans alike, centrists, moderate senators who would be at the table trying to cut a deal, trying to get out of this crisis, right?

That number has whittled down, and it is getting close to non-existent.

Senator Shaheen who led these talks and led this effort to get out of the shutdown, she's not running for reelection next year, right?

She isn't going to be here.

Senator Durbin, the Democratic whip, another one who voted for this deal, he's not going to be here either.

So, you really see that that trend sort of continuing, and I think it's reflected in the fact that, you know, these are older members.

VIVIAN SALAMA: Jeff, the Congressional Budget Office estimates the shutdown cost the nation an estimated $11 billion.

A number of polls that have been taken in the last few days show that Americans care most about things like affordability and healthcare, you know, just being able to take care of their families.

Do you feel like the White House might have underestimated how much blowback they would get?

They worked so hard to pin this on Republicans.

Nancy was just saying both parties ultimately get the blame.

But did they really understand how much blame Republicans would get at the end of the day?

JEFF MASON: Well, we were talking earlier about defensiveness.

They were very defensive on this issue as well.

Both the president and his people were frustrated that all of a sudden the Democrats have had a success on the issue of affordability.

And that was sparked, of course, by the off-year elections the other week, which this week got a little bit less attention, but it still sort of underscoring the fact that is now a strength for Democrats and it's a weakness for Republicans.

And you were asking about the polling.

The polling shows, as Nancy rightly said, that both sides are getting some blame, but more of the blame is going to Republicans than it is to Democrats.

And that's in part because of a perception that President Trump has lost -- I don't want to say lost his way, but lost his focus on the things that he promised he would do on the campaign trail with regard to bringing prices down.

And so we're probably going to see a change in message and a change in a travel schedule as a result from the president and the White House going forward to address that.

NANCY CORDES: Well, and there's the White House attempted messaging and then there's the president's messaging.

JEFF MASON: Yes, not always the same.

NANCY CORDES: And they do sometimes diverge.

Like the president said this week in an interview that he doesn't believe the polls that show that Americans are really concerned about affordability, that actually he doesn't think they are that worried.

And he has been arguing actually groceries are getting cheaper, not more expensive, gas is getting cheaper, not more expensive, and the numbers just don't bear that out.

And so that is contributing to this notion that he is not in touch with exactly what Americans are experiencing right now.

ANDREW DESIDERIO: The talk on the tariffs too on those groceries, right?

That was a sign, kind of an admission that that is a problem, right?

VIVIAN SALAMA: Well, and then sort of in the minute we have left, we're also expecting him to meet with the Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman this coming week.

He has been so fixated on these foreign engagements.

He went on two trips during the shutdown, which is very unusual foreign trips, I should say, very unusual for a president to do, has had a number of these high level engagements.

I mean, Natalie, are they not getting the message quite yet?

How do you interpret that?

NATALIE ANDREWS: Donald Trump really loves going to these places where they roll out the red carpet.

It's a big move.

He likes the trade deals.

Even though he could see the reports from his advisers about the cost, tariffs are like Donald Trump's bread and butter.

He talked about doing that every day on the campaign trail.

It's really hard for him to square, I think, the effect with what he always wanted to do.

VIVIAN SALAMA: We're going to have to leave it there, sadly.

So much more to talk about in the future.

Thank you all for joining me.

And thank you at home for watching us.