(Update 11:10ET): The expected rapid blame-game has begun at the highest levels of the Turmp administration, with Vice President JD Vance on Wednesday morning saying bluntly that the Iran war is ‘the reason we lost’ midterms. He had in the opening days of Operation Epic Fury, and just before (per prior NYT reporting), expressed pushback within Oval Office discussions.
TREASURY YIELDS EDGE LOWER AS OIL PRICES SLIDE
“The war with Iran, inflation, and the US relationship with Israel caused voters to break with the Republican party in the midterm election,” Vice President JD Vance says on X, citing a pollster.
- Vance says voters who broke with his party wanted to end the war with Iran, focus on affordability, “put America first,” and “change our relationship with Israel”
- “Everyone knows why we lost,” Vance says
- Vance calls for an “honest conversation” about “where we go from here”
More from Vance’s long X post, which seems to constitute an awkard break from Trump’s triple down rhetoric:
I remain hopeful about our country. To the people who are pissed off and want to say, “I told you so”: you’re right, you did tell us so. Take that energy into electing Republicans who share your worldview. To the people who are just pissed at the results, you should be. Let’s take that anger and get back to the work of saving our country.
And amid coming Demotratic control of the House and Dem majority in the Senate:
US military sources suggest Defense Secretary Hegseth could face impeachment by Democrats or dismissal by Trump over the Iran war, amid growing dissatisfaction within the military, The Times’ Larisa Brown reports
Crude crashing…
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Little is expected to change, for now at least, regarding Iran’s state of high alert and readiness to retaliate as it faces off US forces for control of the Strait of Hormuz. However, Iranian leadership is engaging to some ‘told ya so’ rhetoric and has breathed a sigh of relief that political chickens have come home to roost in the US midterm election, after Democrats have retaken control of the US Senate, and swept the House.
Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf has stated on X Wednesday morning that Americans have resoundingly said “NO TO WAR” at the polls and that Tehran endorses this message, referring to the midterm elections.
He emphasied that the American public rejected war whether because of “conscience or the cost of living,” in an initial reaction statement on X. He further warned the Trump administration of a “nightmare” if it goes against the public’s will.
“If the US govt betrays their public will to serve international paymasters and blackmailers, it will learn our NO comes with a Nightmare,” he added.
Iran’s Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei, who issued a message decaring Nov. 4 as “Iran’s National Day of the Fight Against Global Arrogance” – cautioned the Iranian public that partisan political shifts in the US won’t actually alter Washington’s fundamental “hostility” towards Tehran.
“If there are still those who harbour even the slightest hope that the behavior of the hegemonic system could change through party or factional shifts, or who believe that making concessions to the US could persuade it to abandon its hostility towards the Iranian people, they are gravely mistaken,” said Khamenei in a statement carried by Iranian state media.
“The US sees the end of its hegemony as distant; we see it as near,” the Supreme Leader stated.
NBC observed of the Iranian reaction, “The midterm drubbing suffered by President Donald Trump’s Republicans was met with smug satisfaction in Iran, which framed the election rout as a repudiation of the war launched against it by the United States and Israel.”
Iranian state media has been gloating on Wednesday. One headline from IRGC-affiliated Tasnim News Agency declared “War on Iran Emerges As Major Factor in Republicans’ Midterm Defeat.”
Politico has observed more in the following:
State-run IRNA led its page with a headline announcing “heavy defeat for Trump and his supporters,” which claimed “an unprecedented level of dissatisfaction with US President Donald Trump” — owed in large part to the war.
Anti-war advocates in Washington were also quick to declare Tuesday’s vote a win for Tehran.
“The Democrats didn’t win the midterms,” Trita Parsi, co-founder of the anti-interventionist Quincy Institute, wrote on social media. “Iran did.”
Despite all of this, President Trump says he remains “totally convinced” that launching the Iran war was the right decision.
He has told Fox that the Iran’s unpopulariy was “part of” the reason for huge GOP losses in the midterms, but he still claimed had “no choice” and acted to prevent Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon. He has separately told Politico that he is “totally convinced” that launching the war was the right call for the long term. He has framed his decision-making as ‘necessary’ in the long run of history.
