The Vice President Says "The Reason We Lost Is the War." The President Says He'd "Have to Do It Again." Between Those Two Sentences Is the Whole of the Republican Morning After.

The count at 7 a.m. Thursday: Democrats at 54 Senate seats and climbing, with Mississippi down to absentee and affidavit ballots and Alaska waiting on the November 18 ranked-choice tabulation, and a House projected somewhere between 251 and 268 after more than two dozen flips. The Speaker who promised a peaceful transfer “that will not be transferring” will not run for minority leader; Steve Scalise will, and his first statement was that the party will “need to be honest with ourselves about what happened.” Jim Jordan called it “a staggering day for our Conference.” Ted Cruz called it “a Watergate-level repudiation.” Ronna McDaniel called it a “red rebellion.” Nobody on that list used the word fraud, which is its own kind of news.

Then the explanations began, and they contradict each other in a way worth preserving. JD Vance posted that “the reason we lost is the war.” The president, standing at the construction site for his ballroom, allowed that the war’s effect on energy prices was “largely true” as a cause, said that if he were on the ballot “we would have won,” and said of the war that he would “have to do it again.” So the vice president’s explanation for the loss is a decision the president says he would repeat. A party that believes both things has not finished losing.

The search for someone else to blame has started where it always starts. Reporting Thursday has the president asking advisers whether Pete Hegseth should stay, aides floating the names of Admiral Cooper and General Caine, and one source offering Ron DeSantis as a replacement, while the White House says the president has “full confidence” in his defense secretary and the president says he is “doing a very good job.” Those sentences were issued the same morning. Advisers also say the president will turn his attention to his presidential library, which is one of the things the new House majority has said it will investigate.

On the other side, the first fault line is already visible, and it is the one this publication wrote about yesterday. Robert Garcia, the incoming Oversight chair, listed his subjects: the Trump family’s business, DHS and ICE, the Epstein files, and by name Stephen Miller, Corey Lewandowski and Kristi Noem; he conceded the Justice Department is unlikely to prosecute anyone who refuses a subpoena and said the House can go to civil court instead. Adam Hamilton, the minister who took Kansas, said, “I do not want to spend the next two years in trials.” Schumer promised to “entangle” the president in “legislative razor wire.” James Talarico, who beat Ken Paxton in Texas, said “Texas is not for sale,” which was aimed at a man who spent $443 million to prove otherwise. Those four statements describe one majority, and the argument between Hamilton’s and Garcia’s sentences is the one the next two years will settle.

Two things to hold. First, the president’s own sentence on the war is the most consequential thing said since the polls closed, because the Journal reported last week that Gulf governments were told to expect a campaign against Iran after the midterms, and “have to do it again” is the first post-election confirmation that the plan survived the result. Second, nobody has called this election stolen. The attorney general who sued to withhold Alaska’s certificate has said nothing about Tuesday. Alaska is still counting, and the department’s appeal and its grand jury are still open, so the test this publication set for the month, what the loser does, has one state left to run.