From WNYC Studios. I'm Brian Lerer. This is my daily politics podcast. It's Tuesday, November 18th.

Now our monthly call-your-Senator segment, my questions and yours for New Jersey Senator Andy Kim. Our lines are open with first

priority for New Jerseyans, but others may call us well. It's been quite an eventful month since we

last spoke with Senator Kim. The government shutdown ended. We'll ask him about his vote,

the controversial defection of members of his party in the Senate, and whether he thinks there

will actually be a vote to

extend subsidies for the Affordable Care Act, the issue the Democrats centered for the fight.

Some other news in Washington will want to get the Senators take on. There is the release of those

Epstein emails put out by House Democrats last week. A Senate vote on releasing the Fuller Epstein files is not assured.

Maybe some advice for Governor-elect, Mikey Sherrill. You know, they both used to be in the House of Representatives together

and have now both moved up to statewide elected offices and other thoughts on the election

and how it sets up next year's midterm. So,

Senator, we always appreciate that you do this. Welcome back to WNYC.

Yeah, thanks for having me back this morning, Brian. So the federal shutdown ended without a

guarantee to continue funding subsidies for the Affordable Care Act at current levels or the

increased levels that the spike in insurance costs

would take. You did not vote to end the shutdown. We want to be clear about that. So what do you

make of the actions by your seven Democratic colleagues who did? Well, look, first of all,

I just have to start by saying, you know, shame on Trump and the Republican leaders for putting us in this position.

You know, they put all of their effort and so much intensity behind their efforts to lower taxes for billionaires to push forward on their dangerous agenda and just left so many millions of

Americans left holding on to the mess and now they're seeing their health care costs spike.

So just start with just understanding why we're in this position to start with.

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