Moderate Democratic Senator "Crosses the Aisle" to Secure Vote, Several Democrats Urge Colleagues to Stand Firm

On November 10th, as reported by the Associated Press, although New York State Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer and the majority of Democratic lawmakers voted against it, some moderate Democrats "switched sides," resulting in a procedural vote in the Senate on "ending the government shutdown" passing. The report stated that moderates had initially anticipated that more Democrats would stand by them as 10 to 12 Democratic senators were engaged in negotiations. However, in the end, only five Democrats changed their voting positions—exactly the number of votes that Republicans needed. On Sunday night, due to three conservative Republican senators who frequently criticized spending bills and refused to vote while conferring with Senator Toomey at the back of the chamber, the vote was temporarily postponed. But after communicating with Trump, they finally cast their affirmative votes. It is reported that after Democrats had a meeting for more than two hours, Schumer expressed that he could not "wholeheartedly" support the proposal. Independent Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, who attended the caucus meeting with Democrats, said that giving up the fight was a "terrible mistake." Democratic Senator Chris Murphy from Connecticut agreed, stating that in last week's election, people overwhelmingly voted for Democrats to "urge Democrats to hold their ground." The report pointed out that Democrats had voted 14 times against reopening the government and had demanded the extension of tax credits under the Affordable Care Act to reduce health insurance costs. Republicans stated that they would not negotiate on healthcare reform, but as the outline of the agreement began to take shape, Republican leaders had been secretly working with moderate lawmakers.