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Sen. Angus King, I-Maine, told Katie Couric on Monday that he believes many criticisms of his vote to end the government shutdown have been falsely fanned by progressives.
King was one of eight members of the Senate Democratic caucus who broke with the party to propose a short-term spending package Sunday night, putting the government on a path to reopening.
King and his fellow senators faced backlash from members of the Democratic Party following the vote, with critics suggesting they “caved in” to Republicans without gaining anything in return. Speaking to Couric on his podcast, he said the reactions have been “varied”, but believes most of them stem from a misunderstanding of the situation.
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Sen. Angus King, I-Maine, told Katie Couric on Monday why he voted to end the government shutdown. (Anadolu/Getty Images)
“People are upset, but one of the things that bothers me is the reason they’re upset is because they’ve been made angry, I think this shutdown is sort of the end-all be-all to disciplining Donald Trump and solving the ACA problem when it’s neither of those things,” King said. “This is one of the environmental problems we find ourselves in right now.”
Although he said he respected colleagues like Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., who disagreed with his vote, he rejected their assumption that ending the shutdown would pander to President Donald Trump.
“Ask them what their endgame was,” King said. “How would they feel if it was Christmas and we still haven’t gotten any negotiations done and the law is about to expire in a week and in the meantime people haven’t received SNAP benefits for two months and there is virtually no air travel in the country? That’s the question no one will answer.”
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Sen. Angus King, I-Maine, and seven other senators defended their vote to reopen the government. (Anna Rose Layden/Getty Images)
The shutdown, which became the longest in U.S. history, began on October 1 when Democrats rejected a short-term spending bill introduced by Republicans in the House intended to keep the government afloat until November 21.
Democrats demanded that lawmakers first consider renewing COVID-era Obamacare subsidies, which are expected to be phased out at the end of the year. Republicans, who viewed the spending and tax credits as unrelated, refused to negotiate on tax credits during the shutdown.
Earlier in the morning, King explained on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” that he voted to end the shutdown after feeling it no longer contributed to the goal of renewing the tax credits.
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Sen. Angus King, independent of Maine, speaks to the media following a vote at the U.S. Capitol in Washington on October 3, 2025. (Graeme Sloan/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
“After six weeks – and this is seven weeks – that pathway was no longer working,” he said. “That was not going to happen. The question was: Does the shutdown further the goal of getting the support needed for the extension of tax credits? Our judgment was that it would not produce that result.”
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The package proposed by the Senate on Sunday aims to reopen the government until January 30, 2026. The legislation still needs to be approved by the House before being sent to Trump’s desk for signature.
Gabriel Hays of Fox News contributed to this report.
