- 39 minutes ago
Democratic candidates secured sweeping victories across the United States in the midterm elections, regaining control of the House of Representatives by crossing the 218-seat threshold and flipping key seats nationwide. Among the significant upsets was the defeat of Donald Trump-backed Republican ally Vivek Ramaswamy by Democrat Amy Acton in the Ohio gubernatorial race. In response to the election outcomes, President Donald Trump indicated a willingness to work with Democrats while simultaneously warning on social media that he could use his veto powers repeatedly to block Democratic legislation. Discussing the results, Indian American Congressman Shri Thanedar argued that voters delivered a clear verdict against high inflation, unilateral tariff decisions, and foreign military actions. Meanwhile, Republican strategist Puneet Ahluwalia discussed the shifting political choices of the Indian American diaspora, economic concerns, and foreign policy developments. With Democrats preparing to assume control of congressional chambers, lawmakers are gearing up to initiate committee investigations and potential subpoenas targeting the Trump administration.
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00:10Hello and welcome to a very special broadcast of the midterm coverage and we continue to
00:16bring you breaking news from the U.S. Now this one's Trump and Iran or Trump's nuke
00:22warning to Iran now. President Trump is telling the U.S. media that he will do something big
00:29on Iran. He said he might do a heavy hit on Iran. Now this is a big Trump remark amid
00:37rumors of
00:38possible nuclear strike. Trump is going on a rant spree after losing the midterms as some would say.
00:46Now this is what President Trump has said. He said, I got Greenland and no one talks about it.
00:52The Democrats are poised to take control of both houses of Congress through a series of
00:59sweeping victories in U.S. midterm elections. The United States voters have delivered a thorough
01:05rebuke to President Trump by ousting Republicans in contest up and down the ballot. U.S. media
01:13reports that Democrats have won back the control of House of Representatives and will cross halfway
01:20a mark of 218 seats needed to establish majority. Democrats have won in places long considered to be
01:30the Republican strongholds flipping. Even Senate states like in places like Texas, South Carolina and
01:38captured the offices like Ohio governorship that Republicans had held for years and in some cases
01:45even decades. One of the most shocking results of the night was Trump ally Vivek Ramaswamy losing the Ohio
01:53governor race to Amy Acton. Trump had backed Ramaswamy for over two years, who was leading in polls up until
02:01the last few weeks. Now President Trump appeared to have acknowledged the upcoming shift of power in Washington.
02:08He told the New York Times in a phone interview that he is absolutely willing to accept those results,
02:17the results of the midterm, and is prepared to work with the Democrats.
02:23Trump's jive at Democrats after poll results. U.S. President Donald Trump posted a picture of a cap
02:30with the word veto written on it and said he was going to become a political pundit, analyzing reasons
02:38behind Democrats' victory in the midterm polls. President Donald Trump also has conceded defeat in
02:46the midterm polls. He said he was willing and absolutely willing to accept the election results
02:52and is prepared to work with the Democrats if they end up taking control of the Congress, meaning if they
02:58also end up getting the majority in the U.S. Senate. President Trump, however, stuck a different note on
03:05social media, insisting that he was not on the ballot and claiming that Republicans would have won
03:11a landslide if he had been on that ballot. So his remarks come after he had warned that he could
03:18become Mr. Veto if Democrats take control of either or both chambers of the U.S. Congress. Now,
03:26earlier, as initial trends had emerged, President Trump had said he would use his veto powers
03:31to block Democratic legislation, arguing that repeated vetoes could eventually force Democrats
03:37to negotiate with him and his administration. India Today earlier spoke to Indian-American
03:43Congressman Shri Thanedar, who represented Michigan's 13th Congressional District. Take a listen.
03:51We're now being joined by Shri Thanedar. And on the U.S. midterm results that continue to emerge,
03:59and clearly in the favor of the Democrats. Mr. Thanedar, how would you look at the statement
04:05coming from Donald Trump? He says that he is willing to accept this defeat, and he's also
04:11willing to work with the Democrats, and he will work something out. What do you make of the statement?
04:18Well, I welcome Mr. President Trump's statements here, and his initial, at least, indication that he's
04:27willing to work with the Democrats, the American people have sent him a loud and clear message that
04:34his handling of the economy, his handling of the Iran war, his tariffs is not acceptable. People's lives
04:44are tough. Prices have gone up, and the message is loud and clear. Democrats have a landslide victory here,
04:56and Mr. Trump's willingness. And I would like to, I would only believe it when I see it,
05:03because he has been, run this government with a lot of arrogance, unilaterally made decisions,
05:11you know, disregarded U.S. Constitution. So if this president truly means what he's saying now,
05:18I welcome that.
05:23Right. And what do you make of the statement he made before that, in case he loses, he's going to
05:29use all his veto powers on anything that he wants to get a go-ahead for, despite the gridlock that
05:35may occur at the Senate? How would you look at that possibility now?
05:41Adding that is more of how Mr. Trump operates. You know, he, I have not seen him collaborate. I have
05:50not seen him make compromises. You know, he lets his ego and his arrogance get better of him.
06:00It remains to be seen. Now, look, the American people have been very clear about this.
06:07In the last two years, he ran the U.S. government like he got a mandate from the American people.
06:14He made unilateral tariff decisions. Tariff was the prerogative of U.S. Congress,
06:21and he illegally took that into his own hands. He ran an illegal Iran war. There's so much that this
06:30president did that did not help American people. The prices of gasoline, prices of diesel, fertilizers
06:39have gone up. Access to health care is an issue. And American people are fed up with this president,
06:45fed up with the high cost. And we need to do is work together. The president is still going to
06:53be
06:53president for the next two years. And we need to work together to make things happen.
07:00Right. And what would it mean for all his programs that he will need funding for? How long can he
07:09continue with the kind of fiscal deficit countries looking at this point in time? And do you see gridlock
07:14coming? Will he now turn into a lame duck president?
07:20Well, the gridlock doesn't have to happen. If we can have a give and take, make good decisions,
07:30first of all, we've got to stop this Iran war. We need to get to the negotiating tables and negotiate
07:37a win-win agreement with Iran. We need to, you know, not be as chaotic about tariffs. And focus has
07:49to be
07:49on lowering prices, lowering prices of gasoline, lowering prices of groceries. Everyday health care
07:57has to be accessible. There's a lot that needs to be done. We need to work together. It is up
08:02to this
08:03president. Is he going to encourage a gridlock, fights with Congress, or is he going to be willing
08:11to work to make American people's lives better? Republican strategist Ahluwalia Puneet joined India
08:18today's special coverage on U.S. midterm polls. Listen in what he had to say about the results.
08:25Puneet, you have contested election. You made certain references about the Indian Americans. But if you see
08:30the pattern of voting for Indian American, uh, did you, do you see any kind of a tectonic shift
08:37as far as the Indians, Indian Americans voted this time? And what are the contributing factors for
08:42that? Well, Indians have, you see, I, I'll tell you, which is stays between us. Um, Indian Americans.
08:50Puneet, really, you're on TV. I know. Indian Americans tend to vote Democrats, predominantly.
08:58And, um, and then they moved, thanks to President Trump, on the Republican side. And yes, I, I keep
09:04saying vote in your interest, because if you believe in less regulation, less red tape, less government,
09:10more free enterprise system, and rule of law, the Republican Party is for you. But this time,
09:16I believe, I think they took it more personally. I think the affordability issue, uh, which again,
09:21I can guarantee you that after the war is, is basically brought to its knees, we will have
09:29the gas prices go down. I also believe the inflation we inherited from Biden will go down. And that's
09:35what has been hard. And that's the reason President Trump has been very, very bullish about reducing
09:39interest rates to restart the economy. And it's the democratic policies, like the keystone policy,
09:46Obama said, that if you build, if you have a coal plant, you better close it. And the nuclear energy,
09:52so that's independence of energy independence, which President Trump has been trying to achieve,
09:58has been his main focus. And it's the democratic policy, which is shut it down. And I know,
10:02Geetha, yes, it's a mandate against President Trump, but it was him, his personality who made him
10:07president in 2016, and who made him president again in 2024. So I think the buck stops with him. And
10:14I
10:14guess, uh, the Republicans, we have to get in the ditch, uh, roll up our sleeves and start to see
10:19what do we do next? Is it going to be JD Vance or is it going to be Marco Rubio
10:22or somebody else
10:23who wants to run for president? And, but you have to realize the mega base is a very strong base.
10:29And I think president Trump has shifted Puneet. Oh, no, no, no, no, no. You won't say that?
10:36No, no, no. Despite multiple states flipping, you have, you know, Texas flip, uh, since 1988,
10:43it was, it had never turned blue. This time it has. Unfortunately, the people did not show up. And
10:49you have to also write to Rico when he campaigns, he speaks as if he has the Bible in his
10:55hand. But I can
10:56guarantee you most of the Democrats, they talk like moderates, but they vote like leftists,
11:01communists. And that means more taxes, higher energy bills. And I'll talk about Virginia.
11:06If the governor Spanberger, who's again, a Democrat, if she really wanted to put relief on,
11:13on Virginians, she would have removed the gas tax and that would have made it much easier. But no,
11:18she hasn't done that. And you can see the price of California, in California, the gas prices. So this
11:22also, why would she? Politically, it would not have worked for her to have done that.
11:27It works for her to have the prices up and win the election. Puneet, everybody is going to strategize
11:35and have that. It is never about the people. These elections, look at them. Look at the decisions
11:41that have been taken. President Trump came promising better economy. Your economy actually is in a tumble right
11:49now. It's on a downward slope. It requires recovery. And he did promise, he did, Puneet,
12:00he did promise that he will not take America to war. In fact, if anything, I with certainty would
12:07use to speak of the fact that Trump is somebody who is not going to take his country to war.
12:13All
12:13presidents have taken the country to war. And I actually thought he was anti-war to the extent that
12:18he would not do it. But he has. But you have to realize, Gita, this war we inherited, the war
12:24was
12:24already going on. And we have been at war with Iran for 47 years. They have attacked us multiple times.
12:31They've killed American troops. And they also were, when we took on Soleimani, because he was killing
12:37American soldiers, he was known as the road bomb expert. So this has been going on. And what you see
12:43today is that we are head to head. And most presidents have kicked the can down the road.
12:48But unfortunately, or fortunately, President Trump chose to take on the cartels, take on the bad actors.
12:55And that's what he's doing. No, but internally, he's unhappy. Puneet, isn't he unhappy that the Iran
13:00war didn't go his way, didn't go the way he had planned it? They did think that if they would
13:06have gone in,
13:07that Iran, the regime would topple, and that he would declare an immediate victory, that didn't happen.
13:13It's a prolonged war, something that America can't sustain. And he is unhappy about it.
13:19But that's the reason we never wanted to go to war, because we don't want to go fight wars. And
13:22that's
13:22the reason we haven't put boots on the ground. But he did.
13:26No, no, no. But it's very important. And you have seen, and here is, Gita, very important for
13:30you to realize. First, this war didn't start by us. It was started long before. And there have been proxy
13:35wars going on. You have to recognize that. At the same time, if he really wanted to be placed safe,
13:39he could have bombed Iran after the midterms. At the same time, you have seen how Iran or the IRGC
13:46has held their own people hostage. They have killed them. In fact, they even made them run on when they
13:52had the war with Iraq. A lot of these young boys were basically lost their limbs because they were
13:56made to run on the mines. But mind you, they've killed their own people. And that was done last year,
14:01where 45,000 people died. But at the same time, they bombed their neighbors.
14:05Incoming Democrats had a simple message for President Donald Trump after the midterm results.
14:11Lawyer up. Democrats won control of both the chambers of Congress in a stunning rebuke of
14:18the administration. This win now gives the Democrats power to limit President Donald Trump and his agenda,
14:27and much broader power to investigate the businesses his family runs. With their new majority,
14:33Democrats will take control of House committees going and issuing subpoenas to the members of the
14:41administration and also the ability to conduct oversight investigation into the administration,
14:49the family and businesses ventures of President Donald Trump. So that could take up considerable time
14:55resources for Trump and his allies forcing uncomfortable public hearings or prompting legal showdowns over
15:04subpoenas. And in a callback to Trump's first term, some Democrats have vowed to impeach him for a record
15:11third time. That's all we had in this special bulletin. We will bring you more updates as more results
15:18coming throughout the day, and we'll keep following on the U.S. midterms.
15:22U.S. midterms.