Democrats eyeing the 2028 elections are using the fallout from the longest government shutdown in history to draw a sharper contrast with the party’s aging Senate leadership, unleashing unusually blunt criticism of the compromise that helped reopen the government.

Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-CA) was among the first to go public with his frustration. “Pathetic,” he wrote Sunday on the social platform X in response to the vote. “This isn’t a deal. It’s a surrender. Don’t bend the knee!”

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