Iranian leaders hailed the Democratic landslide in the U.S. midterms on Tuesday as a rejection of President Donald Trump’s war against Iran.
asserted
leaders → hail → Iran
“The Iranian nation handed Trump a strategic defeat on the battlefield,” Mohsen Rezaei, head of the Iranian Supreme National Security Council, posted on social media Wednesday.
asserted
Rezaei → hand → media
“The process of the US’s collapse has accelerated,” Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei posted.
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Khamenei → accelerate → collapse
Democrats will take control of both chambers of Congress in January, giving them new leverage to challenge the U.S. and Israeli war effort.
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Democrats → take → effort
Some Republicans had already broken ranks in the months before Election Day to call for an end to the war.
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Republicans → break → war
Now many have blamed the party’s midterm losses on the war, which drove up energy prices around the world and became increasingly unpopular with Americans.
asserted
which → blame → Americans
While some like Rezaei took credit for Trump’s “POLITICAL DEFEAT,” other Iranian leaders cast the midterm results as a repudiation of his war by Americans.
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leaders → take → Americans
Iran’s Parliament Speaker Mohammed-Baqer Qalibaf, the country’s chief negotiator, posted, “Conscience or the cost of living, Americans said NO TO WAR, and we endorse this message.”
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we → post → message
He characterized potential further attacks on Iran as a betrayal of the American public.
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He → characterize → public
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps had appealed directly to the American people in a letter last month, urging them to vote against their government.
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Corps → appeal → government
Trump had previously accused Iran of prolonging the war in an effort to damage Republican midterm prospects.
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Trump → accuse → prospects
“Your calculations failed, your assumptions collapsed, and your strategic misjudgments became painfully evident,” he wrote.
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he → fail → ?
“The American people have now sent you a clear message,” Baqaei continued.
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Baqaei → send → message
“Yet, if you continue to disregard reality, dismiss the lessons of history, and persist in this dangerous course, the consequences of this grave miscalculation will extend far beyond what you have already witnessed.”
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you → continue → what
Republicans blame war for losses
The sweeping Republican defeat has sharpened divisions over the Iran War.
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defeat → blame → War
Some lawmakers reportedly want to impeach Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who was an early advocate for the war.
uncertain
who → want → war
Rep. Thomas Massie (R, Ky.) told CNN that he intends to force a vote when Congress returns next week on his effort to impeach Hegseth.
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Congress → tell → Hegseth
Massie has been a vocal intraparty critic of Trump and his Administration and lost his GOP primary race in May.
uncertain
Massie → lose → May
“If the President is serious about anyone taking responsibility for [the midterm losses], it’s Pete Hegseth,” a Republican close to the White House told CNN.
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Republican → take → CNN
Hegseth, however, may be forced out of his job before Congress steps in.
uncertain
Congress → force → job
Trump has reportedly spoken to advisers about whether the Defense Secretary should be replaced, CBS reported on Wednesday, citing multiple sources.
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CBS → speak → sources
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, a Republican whose gubernatorial term expires Jan. 5, has been floated as a possible replacement for Hegseth, one source told CBS.
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source → expire → CBS
Trump told reporters on Wednesday afternoon that Hegseth would be “very popular” if he was appointed to fill the seat that will be vacated by Tennessee Sen. Marsha Blackburn, who will take office as the state’s governor, although he said he had not heard any talk of the idea from others “at all.”
Still, Trump has publicly backed the Pentagon’s top official, who has been discussed as a possible 2028 Republican presidential candidate, and denied plans to fire him.
“I think he’s doing a very good job,” Trump told reporters on Wednesday.
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Trump → tell → Wednesday
Where the war could go from here
Democratic leaders have vowed to push for an end to the war following their midterm victory.
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leaders → go → victory
“We are going to end the war,” Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer said at a news conference in Washington on Wednesday, citing Congress’s power over federal spending.
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Schumer → go → spending
House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries urged Trump to end the war before the new Congress convenes, describing the electoral outcome as a message from Americans that they are opposed to the war.
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they → urge → war
Their majorities in Congress will give Democrats greater leverage to restrict military spending on Iran and the ability to advance legislation directing an end to hostilities, although they would still need substantial Republican support in the Senate to override a Trump veto.
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they → give → veto
Democrats could also withhold new funding, and put further pressure on the Administration through congressional investigations and hearings scrutinizing the Pentagon’s strategy, spending, and conduct of the war.
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Democrats → withhold → war
White House spokesperson Lauren Bis described the potential Democratic approach as “sham investigations and radical left policies” in a statement to CNN.
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Bis → describe → CNN
Some Democrats are also seeking to reduce U.S. military aid to Israel.
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Democrats → seek → Israel
Abdul El-Sayed, who was elected as Michigan’s senator, said in his victory speech, “We don’t want our money sent to do apartheid, or genocide, or war.”
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money → elect → apartheid
In July, 103 House Democrats supported an unsuccessful amendment by Massie to eliminate $3.3 billion in military aid to Israel.
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Democrats → support → Israel
Separately, Rep. Ro Khanna (D, Calif.) and Massie sought to strip a provision from the annual defense authorization bill that would deepen U.S.-Israeli cooperation on military technology, research, and weapons production, although the House ultimately passed the bill with the provision intact.
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House → seek → provision
But the midterm results do not offer a guarantee of a quick resolution to the war.
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results → offer → war
Iran may harden its stance in negotiations and press for U.S. concessions.
uncertain
Iran → harden → concessions
“If there are still those who entertain the slightest hope that the hegemonic system may change behavior or shifts in its political parties may bring about change, or that by making concessions to the US, they can persuade it to abandon its hostility, they’re gravely mistaken,” Khamenei wrote in another post on Wednesday.
uncertain
Khamenei → be → Wednesday
This week, Iran unveiled a massive billboard in Tehran’s Enqelab Square depicting the U.S. President behind bars, with the words “We Will Kill Trump.”
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We → unveil → Trump
A crowd gathered in the square on Wednesday, as U.S. election results came in, for a rally marking the anniversary of the 1979 takeover of the U.S. embassy.
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results → gather → embassy
Rallygoers held up signs with the same words and set fire to a poster depicting Trump, Vance, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
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Rallygoers → hold → Trump
William Figueroa, an assistant professor of international relations at the University of Groningen, tells TIME that “the Iranian government has far more reason to seek [nuclear] deterrence and far less reason to trust negotiations” due to the war, which has further “entrenched” the theocratic government by damaging the country’s opposition movement and wrecking its economy.
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which → tell → economy
…and 8 more, not listed.
The Aporia
