Republican hopefuls in the race to succeed Donald Trump swiftly blamed two key pillars of his agenda – the Iran war and tariffs – for summoning the Democratic blue wave that swept the US midterm elections.
JD Vance, the outgoing Florida governor, Ron DeSantis, and Senator Ted Cruz all pointed to frustration over cost of living amid the fallout from Republican defeats across the country, including in previous strongholds.
They pointed to factors including Trump’s prolonged war on Iran and aggressive trade agenda; the US-Israel relationship; and Democratic ads that painted conservative candidates poorly.
“Tariffs have made everything too expensive and the Iran war has dragged on too long,” Cruz, a former Republican presidential candidate who has not ruled out another run, said on his podcast, Verdict With Ted Cruz, on Wednesday. “It should have been brief, decisive and over. It needs to end.”
“The reason we lost is the war,” Vance wrote in a lengthy X post, suggesting his party lost because voters are angry at the Trump administration for diverting focus away from Americans.
“To the people who are just pissed at the results, you should be,” the vice-president added. “Let’s take that anger and get back to the work of saving our country.”
DeSantis, who unsuccessfully challenged Trump for the Republican nomination two years ago and has since endured a strained relationship with the president, declared this week’s elections to be “close to an extinction-level event” for their party.
Democrats made Republicans look bad with ads targeting them over the case of the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and congressional stock trading, DeSantis said on Wednesday.
“We ran as Republicans on saying, ‘We need to do that,’” DeSantis said of the Epstein files, which included a vast array of documents and correspondences tied to the disgraced financier. “And then you actually have people in the Congress voting against release [of the Epstein files] when the attorney general said she had all this horrific stuff on her desk and that people were going to be held accountable.
“It’s untenable when you have people going in, trading stock,” the Florida governor added.
In the months and weeks leading up to the US midterm elections, polling showed voters were increasingly disgruntled with Trump’s handling of his job. Americans were feeling the squeeze of the US economy with gas prices and grocery costs rising – a result of the ongoing war with Iran.
Democrats promised to make life more affordable and keep the US president’s sprawling agenda in check – and won over voters. Democrats have seized authority in both chambers of Congress and won a majority of the gubernatorial races around the country.
Even Trump admitted, on Wednesday, that his war with Iran had pushed potential Republican voters away. “It’s largely true because it drove gasoline up a little bit,” Trump told reporters at the White House.
Cruz blamed Republican politicians for ignoring the warning signs. “Too many Republican politicians seem like they didn’t understand, and they didn’t care,” he said. “Food is too high. Gas is too high. Diesel is too high. Insurance is too high. Life is too high.”

It all came down to Monday night.
Through Sunday, I’d somehow managed to go 13-0 in the Week 8 picks. The only thing standing in the way of unprecedented PFT perfection was Monday night — Bears at Seahawks.
And I’d picked the Seahawks.
I’ll still take 13-1. And I’ll keep trying to run the table.
For the year, I’m now 73-47-1. That’s 60.3 percent.
The goal this week? To not backslide to 1-14, with 30 teams playing and the Steelers and Titans off.
Jaguars at Ravens (Thursday night)
It’s a short-week trap for the Jaguars, who managed to not fall into the Week 8 trap against the short-staffed Colts.
Jaguars 27, Ravens 13.
Bengals vs. Falcons (in Madrid)
The Falcons are way too inconsistent to trust in any given game, especially against a Bengals team that is clicking far more often than it isn’t. Besides, the mini-Super Bowl vibe of an international game will likely push quarterback Joe Burrow to a playoff level of performance.
Bengals 27, Falcons 23.
Broncos at Panthers
It’s a Super Bowl 50 rematch, between one team that is a Super Bowl contender and one team that is not.
Broncos 24, Panthers 16.
Cowboys at Colts
It’s a Super Bowl V rematch, between one team that knows it’s not a Super Bowl contender and one team that continues to delude itself.
Cowboys 27, Colts 17.
Jets at Chiefs
The Chiefs may play with their food (again) on Sunday, but they’ll eventually eat the whole meal.
Chiefs 30, Jets 13.
Lions at Dolphins
The Dolphins should not be taken lightly. The Lions can’t afford to do that, given the quality of the division they occupy.
Lions 24, Dolphins 10.
Browns at Saints
The Saints still have a chance to get things right, and they’re desperate to avoid starting 0-4 in the Superdome.
Saints 23, Browns 14.
Giants at Eagles
It’s suddenly the Bizarro NFC East, with the Giants in first place and the Eagles in the basement.
Giants 23, Eagles 13.
Rams at Commanders
The Rams have fully emerged from their early-season slump.
Rams 27, Commanders 19.
Texans at Chargers
There are some reasons for hope in Houston. There is no reason to expect any positive change from the Chargers, who continue to behave as if they’re closer to 7-0 than 0-7.
Texans 21, Chargers 7.
Packers at Patriots
Did you hear Tom Brady is returning to Foxboro? (If you didn’t, we envy you.) The Patriots need to keep pace with the Bills, and the Packers (while good) need Micah Parson back before they’ll have a shot at being great.
Patriots 31, Packers 21.
Cardinals at Seahawks
If the Seahawks pick up a fifth loss before Veteran’s Day, they’ll almost definitely be sitting at home on Valentine’s Day.
Seahawks 28, Cardinals 17.
Raiders at 49ers
In a renewal of a rivalry so intense that they had to stop playing each other in the preseason, the Raiders will make it interesting.
49ers 24, Raiders 20.
Buccaneers at Bears (Sunday night)
The Bucs have found their formula for winning, and they’re in position to run away with the NFC South.
Bears 24, Buccaneers 21.
Bills at Vikings (Monday night)
Josh Allen is good enough to find the holes in the Minnesota defense before the rush can get to him. And the Vikings’ offense isn’t good enough to keep pace.

Wendy’s rejected a $1.4 billion buyout offer from an activist investor, saying Thursday that the bid was too low, and it adopted a “poison pill” plan that would make it more difficult to engineer a hostile takeover of the company.
Noted investor Nelson Peltz made an offer last week to buy the chain, which has been struggling with high beef prices and aging stores. Peltz said the fast-food landscape had become increasingly challenging, with consumers under pressure, intensifying competition and persistent inflation, and his offer was the best path forward for shareholders.
But in a conference call with investors Thursday, Wendy’s CEO Bob Wright, who joined the company in May from Potbelly, said Wendy’s has a turnaround plan in place that is already producing good results.
“We’re confident that we have the right strategy, execution and resources to restore Wendy’s to its full potential and drive meaningful shareholder value,” Wright said.
Shares rose more than 2% Thursday as the company reported a better than expected performance during the third quarter.
Wendy’s said in a statement that a committee of independent directors unanimously rejected the offer because it “substantially undervalues” the company.
Wendy’s also announced that it has adopted a shareholders’ rights plan, a so-called “poison pill,” intended to avert a hostile takeover of the company. The plan, which grants all shareholders except the hostile bidder the right to purchase discounted shares, automatically triggers if a person or group owns 15% or more of Wendy’s shares.
Peltz’s Trian Fund Management and other partners in the investor group that made the offer to Wendy’s hold 16.3% of the company’s shares. The plan would stay in place for one year, Wendy’s said. Trian didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
Wendy’s has been closing outdated U.S. restaurants so it can focus on its more profitable locations. The company closed 240 restaurants in 2024 and said earlier this year that it planned to shutter up to 358 locations in 2026.
Then, in September, one of the largest U.S. franchisees for Wendy’s filed for bankruptcy protection after the chain tried to terminate its franchise agreement. Michigan-based Meritage Hospitality Group operates 314 Wendy’s restaurants in 15 states.
Wendy’s, which is based in Dublin, Ohio, had 5,969 restaurants in the U.S. and 1,428 outlets in 38 countries at the end of 2025.
Founded in 1969 by Dave Thomas and named after his daughter, Wendy’s is known for its square burgers and Frosty desserts. The fast-growing chain introduced the drive-thru window in 1970 and went public in 1976. In the 1980s, as it jockeyed for sales with McDonald’s and Burger King, Wendy’s launched salad bars and ran its iconic “Where’s the beef?” ad campaign.
But as the fast-food market grew even more competitive and rival burger-focused chains like In-N-Out and Five Guys expanded, Wendy’s fell behind. Wendy’s share of U.S. burger chain sales fell from 11.5% in 2019 to 10.4% last year, according to Technomic, a market research company.

Voters in Washington and Arizona approved ballot measures further restricting biological boys who identify as transgender from playing in girls’ sports, according to The Associated Press.
Washington will now require all students looking to participate in school sports reserved for females to provided a signed statement from their doctor verifying their biological sex. It can be based on their reproductive anatomy, their genetic makeup or their testosterone levels.
Arizona is a bit more lax, now requiring a student joining a girls’ sports team to provide a birth certificate listing their sex. The state will also introduce new restrictions on locker rooms.
The ballot measures in Washington and Arizona passed with 56% and 58% support, respectively.
Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., said House Democrats will seek to hold federal immigration authorities accountable when they return to the majority, invoking the deaths of Renee Good and Alex Pretti at the hands of federal agents in Minneapolis.
Raskin is in line to become chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, a powerful body with oversight authority over federal immigration enforcement, including the actions of Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
In a video posted Thursday morning to the House Judiciary Democrats’ X account, Raskin said, “If there are American citizens like Alex Pretti and Renee Good who are shot down in broad daylight at point blank range by Donald Trump’s masked thugs from ICE, well, we will get on top of it, and we will see that justice is done.”
Raskin also said he wants to prevent federal agents from wearing masks to obscure their identities and ensure their body cameras are turned on during operations.
“We want to bring every part of the federal government back under the control of the Constitution. And above all, we’re going to challenge this reign of corruption. We are going to insist that the government be an instrument for the common good of all of the people through the rule of law,” Raskin concluded.
Former Pennsylvania Sen. Pat Toomey said in a social media post late Wednesday that Vice President JD Vance’s explanation for Republicans’ midterm losses was incomplete without mentioning how tariffs raised costs for Americans.
Toomey, who retired from the Senate when his term ended in 2023, said Vance was “mistaken” to only blame the Iran war for the GOP rout.
“Yes, the resulting higher fuel prices contributed to the inflation that infuriated Americans who were promised lower prices by this administration. But the war is not the only cause,” Toomey wrote. “Arbitrary and capricious tariffs directly raised costs for all American consumers. Lower income Americans can least afford them. Many voted for Democrats yesterday.”
Long before Toomey was first elected to the Senate in 2010, he was a consistent advocate for free trade.
And for decades before Donald Trump was first elected president in 2016, most Republican politicians generally favored lowering barriers to international trade. Trump broke with that modern GOP consensus and revived the party’s older, McKinley-era tradition of protectionism and high tariffs, especially in his second term.
Economic research has found that Trump’s tariffs have raised costs for Americans. A Federal Reserve Bank of New York study found about 26% of the tariff increases were passed through to consumer prices, while the nonpartisan Tax Foundation estimated the tariffs amounted to an average $1,000 tax increase per U.S. household in 2025.
Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, was blunt about how his party did in the midterms this year.
In a lengthy post on X, which was a transcription of what he said on his podcast, Cruz described the outcome as a “blue tsunami.”
“It was an a– kicking,” Cruz said. “It was not simply a bad 2006 midterm election. It was a Watergate-level repudiation.”
Cruz himself was once nearly ousted in 2018, when Democrat Beto O’Rourke lost to him by just two percentage points. Eight years later, Cruz will become the lone GOP senator in Texas after James Talarico handily defeated Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton.
Cruz said he knew the GOP wipeout in Texas, which saw all statewide offices go to Democrats, was very much possible.
“I am very, very sorry that it came to pass. Texas has not had a Democrat governor since 1994. We haven’t had a Democrat senator since 1993. Now we’ll have both,” Cruz said.
Cruz, like others in his party, chalked up the devastating losses to Republican politicians not seeming to understand or care about the cost of living crisis Americans have been dealing with.
“Food is too high, gas is too high, diesel is too high, insurance is too high, life is too high,” Cruz said. “Tariffs have made everything too expensive, and the Iran war has dragged on too long. It should have been brief, decisive, and over. It needs to end.”
Cruz also referenced wealth inequality as a frustration for voters, referencing Elon Musk’s brief trillionaire status.
“There’s a very real economic disconnect. Our K-shaped economy is a yawning divide. Last year, we saw the world’s very first trillionaire, a modern-day Thomas Edison, at the very same time that millions were struggling to feed their families,” he said.
“Understandably, people were pissed off, and elected Republicans didn’t do enough to address their very real pain,” he added.

Authorities on Wednesday were still trying to piece together how an escaped Tennessee prisoner convicted of murder evaded capture for more than a week before being tracked down hundreds of miles away in Missouri.
Jacob Morley, who was serving a life sentence for killing a coworker four years ago, was apprehended Tuesday near Kansas City, Missouri, authorities said. Morley was found after troopers used roadside cameras and a helicopter to track him down and his truck got stuck in the mud. Two rifles and a shotgun were recovered from the truck.
Authorities believe Morley, 28, found his way to a farm near Marion, Illinois – about 127 miles away – in the days after his escape, spending some time in a shed that was used periodically by hunters.
Investigators found evidence he drank beer and prepared garlic bread and other food – and that he left behind an apologetic handwritten note after stealing a truck from the farm, according to Williamson County Sheriff Jeff Diederich. Morley is also suspected of stealing clothes and the three firearms from the property.
Diederich believes Morley walked about 3 miles to the farm after abandoning a different truck he had driven after his escape. Security cameras captured Morley walking away from the truck and at a couple of locations along Route 13, but the terrain – which includes fields and woods – would have made it tough for him to be spotted, Diederich said.
It’s unclear why Morley traveled to Marion and why he was driving near Kansas City, more than 350 miles away.
“How he ended up in Marion is kind of a mystery,” Diederich said.
Diederich said there’s no evidence Morley had help from anyone.
Morley escaped from the Northwest Correctional Complex in Tennessee’s far northwestern corner on October 25, after he slipped through a fence in his prison clothes. Surveillance video showed him stealing a truck from a farm near the prison, which he abandoned in Marion.
His escape came the same month that Tennessee Department of Correction Commissioner Frank Strada resigned from his role following the failed execution of Christa Pike, which left her unconscious and on a ventilator at a hospital. Pike has since been released from the hospital and returned to a maximum-security prison as her future remains uncertain.
All “available information” regarding Morley’s whereabouts when he was on the run has been released, Tennessee Bureau of Investigation spokesperson Kim Wheeler-Elder wrote in a text message.
Captured inmate faces new charges
The Missouri State Highway Patrol says it was informed Tuesday morning that Morley was possibly traveling west on Interstate 70 in the Kansas City area. Authorities said he was compliant when he was arrested.
Morley was taken to the Lafayette County jail in Lexington, Missouri, according to Justin Ewing, a spokesperson for the Missouri State Highway Patrol. The Lafayette County Sheriff’s Office did not immediately respond to a request for comment. No charges have been filed against him in Missouri courts, according to online court records.
Before Morley was apprehended, he was charged in federal court in Tennessee with one count of unlawful flight to avoid prosecution, court documents show. Morley was also charged Tuesday in federal court in Missouri with one count of being a felon in possession of a firearm.
A deputy US marshal interviewed Morley at the Lafayette County jail on Tuesday and Morley admitted to escaping the Tennessee prison, stealing the truck in Marion as well as the two rifles and shotgun, according to a probable cause affidavit.
District Attorney General Danny Goodman Jr. in Tennessee said in a phone interview that he plans to file additional charges but it’s unclear when Morley will be returned to Tennessee.
Morley was convicted of killing coworker Cody Birchfield in 2022. Birchfield’s body was found in a box under Morley’s home after he had been missing for a few weeks.
When Morley saw deputies at his home, he led officers on a chase that ended in North Carolina, authorities said. Morley was convicted of first-degree murder, aggravated burglary, tampering with evidence, vandalism and evading arrest.