File photo: Iranian parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf and US vice president JD Vance
He accused the US administration of preparing for the next phase of the war while America was “teetering on an Israel-First cliff”. Vance said the main problem was not voter turnout, as Republican supporters had largely turned out to vote, but that a significant section of the party’s previous supporters had voted against it. Vance argued that the administration would face attempts to shift blame for the election results, but said the war remained the central issue behind the party’s losses.
Iranian parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf has openly mocked US vice president over his post on X following a less than ideal midterm election defeat, comparing him to a gambler unable to walk away from a losing bet. In a post on X responding to Vance’s lengthy assessment of the election results, Ghalibaf wrote: “Losing gambler energy, can’t walk away from the table. He also criticised those who had opposed calls for a diplomatic resolution to the conflict, saying their political advice had proved misguided.
Ghalibaf was responding to Vance’s post in which the vice president acknowledged that the Iran war had contributed to Republican losses, arguing that many voters who supported president Donald Trump and Vance in 2024 had switched to Democratic candidates in the midterms.
Citing feedback from a pollster who had accurately anticipated the scale of the Republican defeat, Vance identified four major reasons behind the voter shift: opposition to the war, concerns over the cost of living and inflation, dissatisfaction with the administration’s “America First” approach and calls for a change in Washington’s relationship with Israel.