Iranian parliament speaker attacks U.S. leadership after Republican midterm collapse
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Iran's parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf blasted U.S. officials for their aggressive posture toward Iran, while US Vice President JD Vance and President Donald Trump tried to pin the Republican Party's 2026 midterm defeat on the war they chose to escalate.
Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf used his X account to sharply criticize US leadership, saying the United States was sliding toward an "Israel-First cliff" and that officials were acting with "losing gambler energy" in negotiations. His comments followed a post by US Vice President JD Vance, who said the war with Iran was a major factor in the Republican Party's sweeping defeat in the 2026 midterm elections, a claim echoed by President Donald Trump.
Vance said internal campaign data showed strong turnout among conservative voters, but also showed that many people who backed the Trump-Vance ticket in 2024 switched to Democrats in 2026. He said the main reason for the loss was the war, adding that voters also wanted an end to the conflict, action on cost-of-living pressures, an "America First" approach, and a different relationship between the US and Israel.
"The real reason we lost is obvious to almost everyone... The reason we lost is the war. The president himself said so last night," Vance wrote.
Vance also defended commentators who called for diplomatic solutions to the conflict and warned against future proposals for immigration amnesty, describing such ideas as misleading.
President Donald Trump, in a phone interview with the Wall Street Journal, acknowledged that "Iran was a piece of it" in the party's poor performance, while still defending his decision to launch the war earlier in the year.
The exchange underscores the deepening political damage caused by the conflict and the continued hostility between Iranian officials and US leadership as both sides assess the fallout.