WASHINGTON — Hours after Democrats crushed Republicans in the midterm elections, Vice President JD Vance blamed his party’s losses on Americans’ frustration over the war with Iran.
“The reason we lost is the war. The president himself said so last night,” Vance said in a post on X.
“If you’d like to argue it was worth it, that losing the Senate for the next 6 years was worth it, then do so. Argue it was a worthwhile cost to pay. Agree or disagree, that’s at least honest,” Vance wrote. “But everyone knows why we lost. And any honest conversation about where we go from here must start there.”
Vance, a potential GOP 2028 presidential hopeful, cited an unnamed pollster he called “one of the smartest people I know in politics,” who said voters identified four top issues Republicans must address to win back their support, including the war in Iran.
“Our voters showed up. And the above four reasons are why many of them voted for Democrats,” Vance said. “This is according to a pollster who nailed the results.”
Trump said in an interview with The Wall Street Journal on Tuesday that the war was a factor in Republicans’ losing seats.
“Iran was a piece of it,” Trump said, defending the decision to start the war. “I don’t think about it. I did the right thing. I would have done it again.”
Trump spent the final weeks on the campaign trail highlighting the Iran war, claiming that the U.S. would make a deal “soon” and speaking to Fox News on Monday, saying gas prices would come down quickly.
“When was the last time we fired anything? This isn’t a war. This is a very soft war,” he said.
As results came in on Tuesday night, Trump posted on Truth Social and said the reason Republicans lost was that he himself was not on the ballot, despite telling voters to “pretend” he was.
“I wasn’t on the Ballot and if I was, we would have won IN A LANDSLIDE!” Trump wrote on Truth Social on Tuesday night. “Thank you for your attention to this matter.”
