Many of the legislators who broke away from Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., were part of conversations between Republicans and Democrats over the past few weeks.

Senators Angus King (I-Maine), John Fetterman (D-Pa.), Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.), Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.), Maggie Hassan (D-N.H.), Jacky Rosen (D-Nev.), Tim Kaine (D-Va.), and Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), the second most powerful Democrat in the Senate, were among those who left.

“The question was, does the shutdown further the goal of achieving some needed support for the extension of the tax credits? Our judgment was that it will not,” King said. “It would not produce that result. And the evidence for that is almost seven weeks of fruitless attempts to make that happen.”

Schumer and other Senate Democrats have said for a long time that they