Democrats weren't the only ones celebrating amid shattering defeats for Republicans in the midterm elections — Iranian leaders also took a victory lap Wednesday. Iran cast the results — where Democrats made gains even in traditional Republican strongholds — as a rejection of President Donald Trump's war and a decisive referendum on the economic toll it took on American voters in the months before the election. "The process of the US’s collapse has accelerated," Iran’s current Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, posted on an official English language account on X.
"Conscience or the cost of living, Americans said NO TO WAR, and we endorse this message," Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, who has also served as Tehran's chief negotiator in talks with Washington, posted on X. STATE OF PLAY: BLUE WAVE SWEEPS DEMOCRATS INTO POWER, WITH KEY RACES STILL HANGING IN BALANCE "If the US govt betrays their public will to serve international paymasters and blackmailers, it will learn our NO comes with a Nightmare," Ghalibaf added. Khamenei, meanwhile, appeared to signal Iran would dig in its heels rather than negotiate with the U.S.
"The Great Satan [the US] wants the surrender of the Iranian nation. The slightest inclination toward submission would cause the immense capital acquired through the blessings brought by the blood of our martyrs and the sacrifices of the entire Iranian nation to be lost," he wrote in another post on X. "It would embolden the enemy to launch more wars, and carry out its next acts of aggression." The declarations came after Democrats seized control of Congress Tuesday night in a political bloodbath for Republicans, delivering a major rebuke to Trump after a campaign dominated by concerns over affordability and the months-long war with Iran that the president repeatedly promised was nearing its end.
When the attacks began earlier this year, Trump said it would last a weeks — maybe a bit over a month. It has now been raging for more than eight months. TRUMP CALLS IRAN CONFLICT A 'SOFT WAR,' INSISTS US HOLDS THE CARDS AHEAD OF MIDTERM ELECTIONS Iran was hardly the only issue driving voters to the polls — but the conflict became increasingly intertwined with Americans' economic concerns as the war sent energy prices higher and impacted the costs of gas and most goods.
Polling ahead of Election Day showed deep public dissatisfaction with the Iran conflict. Trump himself acknowledged after the results came in that Iran "partly" played a role in Republicans' losses, even as he continued to defend his decision to go to war. Vice President JD Vance was much more blunt, writing in a lengthy X post: "The reason we lost is the war." "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," he continued.
"Argue it was a worthwhile cost to pay. Agree or disagree, that's at least honest." Other voices in Tehran also claimed vindication in the wake of the results. TRUMP ADMIN THREATENS IRAN WITH 'CONSEQUENCES' AS ALLIES CONVENE AMID THREATS OF POST-ELECTION ESCALATION Iranian Deputy Parliament Speaker Ali Nikzad called the Republican losses the "aftershocks" of what he described as Trump's defeat at the hands of Iran, while a senior official in Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian's office claimed the war and U.S. support for Israel had brought Republicans an historic electoral defeat.
Extract — continue reading at the source.
