USpol
According to this, instead of caving, Schumer was keeping the Democrat Senators holding fast, to keep the shutdown running just past the off-year elections that were won overwhelmingly by the Dems.
Elsewhere I've read that if they didn't end the shutdown soon, the as yet unsworn-in Adelite Grijalva's signature to push a vote on the Epstein files may have got neutered by another Reublican congressperson turning up? Is that due to Texan gerrymandering?
