US Vice-President JD Vance has blamed the Iran war for the Republican Party's devastating losses in the midterm elections.
"The reason we lost is the war," he wrote in a lengthy post on X on Wednesday morning. "The president himself said so last night."
Vance was commenting for the first time since his party's resounding defeat - President Donald Trump earlier acknowledged the Iran war was a factor but stood defiant on his decision to launch the attacks.
The vice-president has long been viewed as an Iran war sceptic, and experts say with this statement he has sought to publicly distance himself from the deeply unpopular conflict ahead of a potential 2028 presidential run.
Vance said he had discussed Republicans' loss of Congress with pollsters, who said the issue was not that Republican voters did not cast ballots - the problem was that those who voted for Trump in the 2024 presidential election turned against him this year.
He said the voters were angry with the administration over the Iran war, cost of living and inflation, and the current US relationship with Israel, which receives billions of dollars in annual US aid.
Elaborating further on the frustration over the war with Iran, he said: "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. Argue it was a worthwhile cost to pay. Agree or disagree, that's at least honest."
"But everyone knows why we lost. And any honest conversation about where we go from here must start there."
He urged Republicans to take their anger and "get back to the work of saving our country".
"There will be a lot of infighting and arguing over what happened and why that is," he said. "One of the pollsters I really respect told me that our economic messaging wasn't sharp enough down the stretch. I'm sure that's true."
Earlier, speaking to Fox News after Tuesday's election results came in, Trump said he believed the war in Iran was partly to blame for Republicans' mid-term losses.
"People agree with what I'm doing on Iran, but they really probably weren't willing to do the short-term consequence of paying more for gasoline," Trump said.
He also claimed Republicans "would have won easily if I was on the ballot".
The conflict has spiked the price of fuel in the US, one of several economic factors that drove voters to the polls this November.
Prices increased by 3.7% in the year to September, driven higher by fuel and energy prices.
In the exit polls, nearly 80% of voters said inflation had caused them hardships - with 60% of people blaming Trump's policies for the rising cost of living.
