Trump Congratulates Democrats, Says He Will Accept Midterm Results and Admits ‘Iran Was a Piece of It’
President Donald Trump congratulated Democrats on winning control of Congress and said he would accept the midterm results, while warning he would veto legislation he considers extreme.
“My message is congratulations to the Democrats, and I look forward to working with you for the good of our country,” Trump told CBS News late Tuesday, Fox News reported.
Trump told The New York Times he was “absolutely willing to accept those results.” He added, “We’ll, you know, look forward to working with them. We’ll probably work something out.”
Democrats had braced for a fight over the results after Trump warned of noncitizen voting and filed lawsuits in Alaska and California, The Associated Press reported. Instead, he also told Fox News he would accept the outcome.
Blames Ballot Absence, Points to Iran
Trump rejected the idea that the losses were a verdict on him. “I feel that I wasn’t on the ballot, and there was nothing that could be done about that. If I was, we would have won,” he told CBS.
“In some cases, they didn’t like the candidates, and in some cases those candidates were not my friend, and the base knows that better than anybody. And they stayed back,” he said.
Asked by The Wall Street Journal whether the Iran war hurt Republicans, Trump said, “Iran was a piece of it.” He told the paper he did not regret launching the war, People reported.
“I don’t think about it. I did the right thing. I would have done it again,” Trump told the Journal. He called rising gas prices, not the war itself, the bigger political problem.
Trump also said he had no regrets about endorsing South Carolina Sen. Darline Graham and Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, both of whom lost Senate races Tuesday.
On governing with a Democratic Congress, Trump pointed to immigration. “We could work with them on immigration, I think. Immigration is a big deal,” he told Fox News hosts Bret Baier and Martha MacCallum, the Daily Caller reported.
He drew a line at what he called an open border. “Now, could I work with them on an open border? I don’t think so,” Trump said.
He made clear the veto pen would be his main tool. “I think they’re gonna want to work with me,” Trump told CBS. “Otherwise, I’d just veto everything, and they’re not gonna want that.”
“They’ll send over things that are insane, and I’ll veto them,” he told Baier. “And after a couple of months of vetoes, they’ll go out, and they’ll say, ‘How do we get this stuff done?’ And we’ll work together.”
Democrats will lack the two-thirds majorities in both chambers needed to override vetoes. Party leaders have signaled plans for aggressive oversight and investigations of top administration officials when the new Congress convenes Jan. 3.
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