Trump may be vulnerable but this is still a high-risk move

Finally, after nine months of Donald Trump running rampant over much in government they hold dear, Democrats in Congress have found the ground on which to fight.

- Chris Stein

Pressed to vote for a Republican plan to keep the government open until mid-November, Democrats instead laid out a series of demands that amounted to the undoing of much of what the GOP has accomplished over the past year.

It was a nonstarter for Republicans, and the government tipped into a shutdown just after midnight yesterday. For Democrats, that may have been the point - pummelled by voters last November, the party has been looking for opportunities to remake its case to Americans.

"This is a righteous fight. There is no fight better than this fight right now," said Massachusetts’s Elizabeth Warren on a live stream with other Democratic senators convened shortly before the chamber’s final, futile votes on Tuesday evening.