En esta noticia
President Donald Trump has blamed Fox News, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, gas prices driven by the Iran war and Republican candidates he picked for the “blue tsunami” that gave Democrats control of the House and Senate in Tuesday’s midterm elections.
He spread the blame across Truth Social posts, phone interviews and remarks to reporters at the White House. In a live call to Fox News on election night, he said he didn’t see the defeat as “a hit on me.”
Pundits called the sweep a tsunami rather than a wave because Democrats flipped seats in states usually favorable to Republicans, including Texas, South Carolina and Kansas.
Why did Donald Trump blame Fox News and Greg Abbott for the midterm losses?
As results came in, Trump posted that Fox News “bears responsibility for these losses” because it kept giving airtime to Democrats. He also went after the network’s polls and Democratic commentator Jessica Tarlov.
He still called in to the network around midnight. On air, he told anchor Bret Baier that Fox needed a better pollster, and Baier replied that the results closely matched the network’s own polling.
Abbott was next. Shortly after the governor conceded to Democrat Gina Hinojosa, Trump posted that Abbott wouldn’t have lost if he hadn’t become a “RINO,” or Republican in name only, during his last six months in politics. Earlier that day, Trump had praised him as “strong and highly respected.”
Did Donald Trump blame gas prices and his own candidates for the ‘blue tsunami’?
On Wednesday, a reporter at the White House ballroom construction site asked Trump about Vice President JD Vance’s claim that the Iran war cost Republicans the election. Trump said Vance’s view was “largely true” but added that he would make the same decision again. His reason was that the war “drove the gasoline up a little bit short term.”
That answer went further than his comments on election night, when he told The Wall Street Journal the war was only a “piece” of the defeat.
He also blamed the candidates, telling Fox they “just didn’t inspire the people to get out and vote.” Many of those who lost were his own picks, including Ken Paxton in Texas, Michael Whatley in North Carolina, Mike Collins in Georgia and Darline Graham in South Carolina.
He offered other explanations too: a “mood in the air,” the history of the president’s party losing midterms, and his not being on the ballot himself. Even so, he told Politico he didn’t “want to blame anybody.”
Did Donald Trump accept the Democrats’ ‘blue tsunami’ win?
He did. On his election night call with Fox News, Trump congratulated Democrats and said they “did a good job” and had “fought hard.” He added that he could work with them on “many things.”
He made the same offer in a separate call with CBS News, saying he looked forward to working with Democrats “for the good of our country.” In the same call, he reminded them of his veto power and said he would “just veto everything” if they didn’t cooperate.
Accepting the result marked a break from his 2020 presidential loss, which he never conceded. In October, he had said he would accept the midterm results “if they’re honest elections.”