00:00So the Republicans' setback in U.S. midterm elections has triggered a massive political storm within the Trump administration.
00:07U.S. Vice President J.D. Vance has identified the Iran war as the key reason behind their massive defeat.
00:15J.D. Vance admitted that the war cost Republicans' votes.
00:19Some of the very voters who voted Donald Trump in power in 2024 switched sides.
00:23They voted Democrats. President Trump defended his Iran policy.
00:27He acknowledged that the conflict may have contributed to the electoral loss.
00:31But Trump has partially blamed the Iran war for the outcome.
00:34He insisted if he had to take the same decision again, he would have taken the same decision once again.
00:40I quickly want to cut across and bring in my colleague Sandeep Unnithan for more on this.
00:45And Sandeep, Donald Trump may be seen as lame duck.
00:49But the fact does remain, even within the Republican Party, there are leaders who are distancing themselves from the Iran
00:56war.
00:57And from President Trump, is J.D. Vance the first to do so?
01:01Absolutely, Gaurav. You know, there are cracks that have shown up in the Trump administration post this debacle.
01:07I mean, people are calling it a landslide of historic proportions of the kind that we've not seen, at least
01:13in the 21st century.
01:14And now, J.D. Vance, the vice president, is someone who's had presidential ambitions.
01:19And it's very likely that with this very unprecedented post on X, 600-word analysis of what went wrong, where
01:27he, as you mentioned,
01:28he's mentioned the fact that a lot of Republican voters turned out, but they all voted Democrat.
01:34And he has given out a roadmap of what the Republican Party needs to do to, you know, put up
01:40a fight in 2028,
01:41which is basically go back to their core voters, end the war in Iran, you know, reassess their, you know,
01:48ties with Israel.
01:49All of this. It was almost like a presidential stump speech, Gaurav.
01:53And the last 30 seconds, Sandeep, if I may, the Democrats, now when they want Trump to lawyer up or
02:01team Trump to lawyer up,
02:02there may be more within the Republican fold who may abandon the president.
02:08Absolutely, Gaurav. And, you know, when Trump comes under attack, there are going to be a lot of people who
02:12are going to cut and, you know, cut loose
02:15because they want to protect their political futures.
02:18They are very young politicians. Vance is in his 40s. Marco Rubio is also in his 40s.
02:23These are very young politicians who have a very long political career ahead of them.
02:28And if Trump goes down, they want to ensure that he doesn't take them all down with them.
02:32They want to continue, you know, in U.S. elections beyond a Trump presidency, which ends in two weeks from
02:38now.
02:38He's not going to get a third term. So it's very clear that everyone's trying to, you know, secure their
02:43political...
02:43So they want the Republicans to live to fight another day.
02:46And that's a story that Sandeep and I will be tracking very closely.
02:48Sandeep, many thanks for joining me.
