Leigh Ann Caldwell

But it proved it proved to be a massive mistake.

They are going to come out as being extremely unproductive Republicans.

And they could have been working on other things.

They're way behind.

And it just broke a lot of trust within the party, because one thing a couple of Republicans actually during that process had said to me that one of the.

things that happens, especially like during a government shutdown and, you know, the leaders aren't talking to each other and everything's stalemated.

But then it's like, you know, all the rank and files, they're bored.

And so they start talking to each other and they're like, we're over this.

Let's

Not that their bipartisan plans ever become reality, but their talking starts to put pressure on leaders.

And he completely eliminated that aspect of what legislators want to feel is like they are having some sort of input or say or impact.

And he negated that entire underspoken element of leadership.

of what the shutdown and what just kind of like the day-to-day job is.

I think that based on my discussions with Democrats so far, very preliminary, but they feel like they came out so much on top of the last shutdown.

They completely changed the narrative to health care, obviously an issue that they are very comfortable with.

And Republicans, as we see, cannot deal with.

And so the risk of another shutdown, the base might get mad, but the risk of another shutdown could absolutely like eliminate all of this goodwill with voters that they have built up by fighting, quote, fighting for health care.

I mean, I think Democrats absolutely want the issue.

It's good politics for them.

You know, they would never say that or admit it, but they do know that the issue helps them.