- Sam Cabral
- BBC-Washington
News that Democrats will take control of the US Senate after this week’s midterm elections has sparked recriminations within the Republican Party.
While critics of former President Donald Trump have blamed him for the poor performance of Republican candidates, other Republicans have criticized their Senate leader, Mitch McConnell.
In the Democratic Party, the White House has given the strongest signal that President Joe Biden will run for president.
The race for the US House of Representatives is still inconclusive.
Republicans still favor a House victory in Congress, which would severely hamper President Joe Biden’s plans, but their potential majority shrinks as votes continue to be counted.
Over the weekend, US networks predicted Democrats would take two Senate seats in Arizona and Nevada and retain control of the upper house.
“This is the third straight election that cost Trump the result,” Larry Hogan, the Republican governor of Maryland who was a frequent critic of Trump during his presidency, told CNN on Sunday.
He added, “(Trump) said we were going to get tired of winning. Well, I’m tired of losing.”
But the real test, says the BBC’s North American correspondent Anthony Zurcher, is whether Trump’s allies will turn against him in the coming days and weeks.
History indicates that the party that controls the White House usually loses seats in midterm elections, and the Democrats’ performance this year is the best for a party that has ruled for at least 20 years.
“Washington pundits said we can’t win because of history, history, history,” House Speaker and California Democrat Nancy Pelosi told ABC’s This Week.
He explained that Democrats “never accepted experts” and focused on the “contradiction between them and their opponents.”
Pelosi on Sunday was part of a group of party officials who backed President Biden for re-election in 2024.
Anita Dunn, a senior adviser to the White House, told CBS News that the president has not been influenced by “what the other side is doing or what another candidate might do” and will announce her decision soon.
He added that the mid-term results were “of great importance” to the party agenda and Mr. Biden believes he is “the best person to carry forward the progress we have made”.
And if Biden runs again, he’s likely to wage a new contest with Trump, who defeated him in the 2020 election, and Trump is expected to officially announce his decision to run for the Republican nomination for the 2024 presidential election next Tuesday. .
Trump’s potential announcement could upend longstanding loyalties within the party, with some of the former president’s allies attacking his critics, most notably Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell.
“The Republican sign, dropped because of Mitch McConnell, is not exciting, not convincing and not convincing voters,” Stephen Miller, Trump’s former White House adviser, told Fox News on Sunday.
