After one of the most disastrous set of midterm results in US political history, how are Republicans dealing with the outcome, and where does it leave a JD Vance presidential run in 2028?
The bad news for Republicans is that the midterm results aren’t yet finalised and there could be more bad news in the Senate races taking place in Mississippi and Alaska. Those results are not yet in.
Regardless, senior Republicans have already gone public with their own take for the party’s performance, most notably vice president JD Vance, who’s broken ranks by publicly declaring that the party’s losses were caused by Donald Trump’s war in Iran.
That’s led to reporting suggesting that Pete Hegseth’s position as US defence secretary could now be under threat with Donald Trump considering whether to remove him from his position.
As the inquest begins within the Republican Party, the entire Americast crew get together to unpack what Democratic control of Congress will mean for the rest of Donald Trump’s presidency.
• Sarah Smith, North America Editor
• Anthony Zurcher, North America Correspondent
• Marianna Spring, Social Media Investigations Senior Correspondent
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This episode was made by George Dabby, Nik Sindle and Alix Pickles. The technical producer was Phillip Bull. The series producer is Purvee Pattni. The senior news editor is Sam Bonham.
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