Google Cloud Speech-to-Text API (Chirp) + Gemini 2.5 Flash Non-Thinking. Treat it as a searchable index of what was broadcast, not a quotation record.
00:00:44the
00:00:45daily
00:00:49election issues that disrupted the balance of power
00:00:53in America. What does the composition of the future Congress
00:00:57tell us about the political situation in America and its impact on
00:01:00the war with Iran?
00:01:01Hello and
00:01:08welcome to the ups and downs of the US elections. This is a podcast from
00:01:12BBC Persian. I am Sama Farzaneh.
00:01:16Blue wave, blue storm, blue tsunami, and
00:01:20amazing are the descriptions used for the elections on Tuesday,
00:01:23November 3,
00:01:262026, or Aban 12, 1405.
00:01:30Six Democrats were able
00:01:33to take the governorship from their Republican rivals
00:01:37across America, and in the
00:01:40Senate, Democrats were able to win seven seats
00:01:44from the Republicans in the states of Kansas,
00:01:48Iowa, Maine, North Carolina, and
00:01:51South Carolina, and of course Texas.
00:01:55In the House of Representatives races, as of now,
00:01:59when we are recording, Democrats have won
00:02:0229 seats from their rivals,
00:02:06and it is clear that the control of the House of Representatives
00:02:09will also be in the hands of the Democrats. In
00:02:12this
00:02:15part of the actual, this is the last part of
00:02:18the ups and downs of the US elections that we are talking about.
00:02:22We are going to take a look at the results that
00:02:25have been obtained, but before that, let me ask the program question
00:02:29which I will answer at the end of this program. The question is,
00:02:32on which book should Abdul
00:02:35Saeed, the elected senator from the state of Michigan,
00:02:38place his hand during the inauguration ceremony or
00:02:42oath? In this program, I am with two
00:02:46of my colleagues, Mehrnoush Pourziayi and Bahman
00:02:49Kalbassi. Mehrnoush is in the US Congress
00:02:53from Washington D.C., and Bahman is in
00:02:57New York City. I am in Dearborn,
00:03:00in the state of Michigan. Before
00:03:03we go to other discussions, I want to ask
00:03:06which of these
00:03:09races was strange
00:03:12for each of you. Something happened that
00:03:15you probably didn't expect. Bahman, let me start
00:03:19with you. It was last week, Sam, when you asked the same
00:03:22question, and at that time I talked about South Carolina.
00:03:26Naturally, because before the elections, I was curious
00:03:30what would happen, and eventually
00:03:33it became one of the major surprises of the night,
00:03:37and to the surprise of many observers of the elections
00:03:41for many years, it fell
00:03:43to the Democrats, and of course, with the reminder that
00:03:47the seat of this state was held by Lindsey Graham.
00:03:50Senator Graham, whom many Iranians, especially since the war, are more
00:03:54familiar with, was a supporter of the war, and after his sudden
00:03:57death, Mr. Trump
00:04:03asked his sister to take that seat and eventually she became the Republican candidate
00:04:06with the support of Mr. Trump.
00:04:10But in the general elections, Ms. Graham lost,
00:04:13and this loss, because it was in the early
00:04:17hours of the night, because this state is in the east of America,
00:04:20was a sign that it would be a very difficult night for the Republicans.
00:04:24Ms. Graham did not have much experience
00:04:27in politics, and she came from outside the world of
00:04:31politics in a few months and wanted to do this
00:04:35job. Mehrnoush, which race was interesting
00:04:38to you? I said last week Alaska.
00:04:41Alaska's results are not out yet, but
00:04:44Texas was really a shock.
00:04:48For decades, Republicans had a fortress
00:04:51in Texas that Democrats had tried
00:04:55everything to penetrate but couldn't,
00:04:58and this time, all that
00:05:01prestige of that fortress was shattered, and
00:05:04the
00:05:06extent to which Democrats were able to
00:05:09win in Texas has surprised everyone,
00:05:13from the senator who came to power there, to the other
00:05:16elective seats they won, and also
00:05:19Gina
00:05:21Hinojosa became the first Latina female governor of Texas
00:05:25and was able to take the seat
00:05:29from Republican Governor Greg Abbott. All of these
00:05:32are very interesting in Texas because one of the
00:05:36reasons is that previously, during President Trump's
00:05:39presidential election, a number of Latinos
00:05:43in Texas itself voted for him, and the difference
00:05:46they actually created in the
00:05:50balance of votes caused Mr. Trump to win.
00:05:54If not, the only reason that helped him a lot.
00:05:57This time, these Latinos did not vote for him.
00:06:01You made a very interesting point, Mehrnoush. Mr. Abdul,
00:06:04who is currently the governor of Texas, had been elected
00:06:08for three terms. This was supposed to be his fourth term, and he was very well known
00:06:12as someone who knew how to gather votes
00:06:15for Republicans in Texas and keep them
00:06:19victorious. For me, who is currently in the state
00:06:23of Michigan, naturally, the election of Mr.
00:06:26Saeed was noteworthy. It was just a month or two
00:06:29ago that one of these far-right
00:06:32individuals named Jack Lang. This gentleman had
00:06:36organized a program called, I don't know, "Christian Crusaders,"
00:06:39something like that, and had invited
00:06:42people to come to the city of Dearborn and claimed
00:06:46that the city was going to ruin and had turned
00:06:49into a place where Muslims wanted to implement
00:06:53Sharia law. In short, he had created
00:06:57a program against them, and some people had come to
00:07:00demonstrate, some people had guns, the police had to intervene,
00:07:03and the
00:07:06assumption was that this state perhaps was not ready
00:07:10to vote for someone with a Muslim name,
00:07:13an Arab name, who comes from a Muslim family.
00:07:17And this was also something that Mr. Trump had invested a lot in
00:07:21here and talked about,
00:07:24as did Vice President J.D. Vance. But with
00:07:28all this, Mr. Saeed was able
00:07:32to win in this state, and this was one of those states that, of course,
00:07:36was previously held by another Democrat, and it remained so, but it was one
00:07:39of those that the Republicans had hoped for.
00:07:53Now it is clear that the House of Representatives will fall to the Democrats, and
00:07:56Hakim Jeffries
00:07:58will probably become the Speaker of the House. Mr. Jeffries made
00:08:02a statement today saying that Democrats
00:08:05had campaigned on prices
00:08:08and making life easier for people,
00:08:12and they won on this platform. They should continue
00:08:15to work on this. From the other
00:08:18side, there are people within the Democratic Party who
00:08:22say that they should go very
00:08:25hard on the government
00:08:28and see what the government is doing and have more
00:08:32oversight. They talk about impeachment, they talk about
00:08:35subpoenas. What do you think is the path
00:08:39that Mr. Jeffries and the Democratic leadership team
00:08:42in the House of Representatives will take to
00:08:46ensure that they don't lose the House again in two
00:08:50years? Well, the challenge for a party whose
00:08:53president is not with them is that even though
00:08:57they have a majority in the House of Representatives and the Senate,
00:09:00the hope that they can pass something
00:09:03that is desirable
00:09:05to them is very low, because Mr. Trump or any other president
00:09:09from the opposing party can veto it. They can.
00:09:25various government agencies and investigations into corruption,
00:09:29especially with the so-called widespread corruption accusations
00:09:32in Mr. Trump's administration that attracted a portion of the voters.
00:09:36For this reason, certainly in
00:09:40the steps that the Congress
00:09:48many government officials, but this does not mean that
00:09:51this is all they will do in the next two
00:09:55years. As you said, Mr. Jeffries is
00:09:58saying that we entered these elections with the slogan of
00:10:02reducing the cost of living for people, and we must act on this slogan. Now, how we can
00:10:05act is another question, but they will certainly take at least
00:10:08steps that either Republicans will try
00:10:12not to vote against, Mr.
00:10:16Trump will veto, or even Mr. Trump will be forced to join
00:10:20because of the popularity of what they have
00:10:23passed. Now, there are various types. For example, if they increase
00:10:27the minimum wage, will Republicans vote
00:10:30against it? Of course, it's not very important for Republicans in the House, but in the
00:10:34Senate, and if they vote positively, then Mr. Trump
00:10:38will either come and veto it. There are other cases
00:10:42regarding insurance, healthcare, services, and these things that they can pass
00:10:45and put Republicans in an unfavorable
00:10:49situation where if they vote negatively or veto, it will be
00:10:53written down against them that they prevented cost reductions,
00:10:56and this can be used against them in the next election.
00:11:00For this reason, the leaders of the
00:11:03Democratic Party will naturally try to establish
00:11:07a balance between spending part of their time on investigation
00:11:10and oversight and the other
00:11:13part on passing bills that probably won't become law, but
00:11:17at least can send the signal to public opinion that
00:11:20they are pursuing the promises they made
00:11:24to the people. And they are trying to force
00:11:27Mr. Trump to sign some of these bills into law,
00:11:31and if not, then at the end of two years, they will say, "Well, look, if
00:11:35we had the president on our side, then we wouldn't have any problem,
00:11:39and we could fulfill these promises." In other words, they can
00:11:43also gain some political benefit from it. Another point
00:11:46is that Mr. Trump, well, cannot run
00:11:50in the next presidential election, but eventually a Republican
00:11:54will want to stand against his Democratic
00:11:57opponent, and
00:12:00this term, even for the House of Representatives,
00:12:04if they try to put a spoke in the Democrats'
00:12:08wheel, those who are in the US Congress
00:12:11may later find this to be
00:12:15a negative point and it may also affect
00:12:19their votes later, for example, how
00:12:22they didn't allow a certain
00:12:25law to be passed that was thought to reduce
00:12:29costs. This is one of the methods you use when you have
00:12:32a majority, by putting a bill on
00:12:35the table that voting for or against it
00:12:38is costly for the opposing party,
00:12:41and naturally, this can be used in the next election.
00:12:44Mehrnoush, now we are talking about what
00:12:47they can do in Congress.
00:12:50Many of those who have now been able
00:12:54to enter Congress will start their work
00:12:58from January 2027, including Mr.
00:13:01Saeed who is here. These people say they are against
00:13:05war, they say there should be no war, they
00:13:08have general opposition to war with Iran.
00:13:12How much can they really prevent
00:13:15this war? Mr. Trump, in the previous term when
00:13:19the government shut down and Democrats wouldn't let
00:13:22the budget bill pass,
00:13:26Mr. Trump showed that he could endure and accept criticism.
00:13:30Do you think if they try to hold
00:13:33the budget hostage, will they succeed?
00:13:37It's a bit complicated. In the two months remaining,
00:13:41Mr. Trump still has the opportunity to direct the war
00:13:45in any direction he wants because the
00:13:48new Democratic force has not yet entered Congress.
00:13:51Today is Monday, and Congress is quiet.
00:13:55No one is there. From Monday, the representatives will return
00:13:58and the House will start working, and so will the Senate.
00:14:01During this period, will these Democrats
00:14:05who are in the Senate for these two
00:14:08months be able to form some kind of
00:14:11alliance with Republicans who do not see their fate
00:14:15tied to Mr. Trump and may not feel obliged
00:14:18that their political future is still connected to him,
00:14:22at least with a small group of Republicans,
00:14:26so that they can somewhat limit Mr.
00:14:29Trump's power for new
00:14:32war credits? In any case, there is still
00:14:36some credit and budget available. Now,
00:14:39the Pentagon is looking for new credit,
00:14:42that new credit has not yet been approved. One part they
00:14:46can do is if they succeed, because even
00:14:49after January when the new
00:14:53Democrats of the new House take action.
00:14:55Even though their victory has been significant, they
00:14:59have not reached the maximum two-thirds majority
00:15:03to be able to influence Mr. Trump's veto.
00:15:06Therefore, Mr. Trump's
00:15:09power can ultimately
00:15:12be, especially
00:15:15with the title of Commander-in-Chief,
00:15:19and Republicans with the title that any budget
00:15:22cuts mean abandoning
00:15:26the US military forces, which in America is considered a very
00:15:30bad label for a politician and is always
00:15:33used. These are serious issues. On
00:15:37the other hand, with these elections,
00:15:40everyone who had doubts has realized that
00:15:44the American people really don't want another war,
00:15:48whether they are Republicans or Democrats.
00:15:51And there is this consensus. This is the only chance
00:15:55Democrats might have to reach an agreement
00:15:59with Republicans to prevent
00:16:02the expansion of war in any way. You made an interesting point,
00:16:06Mehrnoush. Mr. Vance, the Vice President of
00:16:09America, also wrote a relatively
00:16:12long post on the X network,
00:16:15stating that, in his opinion, the war with Iran caused
00:16:19this historical defeat
00:16:22for the Republicans in the elections.
00:16:26On the other hand, Mr. Trump also reacted
00:16:29and almost accepted it. On the other hand, he said
00:16:32that he would do it anyway. Bahman, what
00:16:36do you think? Do you think this is a disagreement
00:16:40between the president and his vice president, or
00:16:43are they both trying to achieve a goal through
00:16:47different methods? The words we have heard in the last
00:16:5010-15 hours show
00:16:54less, if not disagreement, but a difference
00:16:58in expression. Mr. Vance explicitly states
00:17:01in his writing that the war with Iran itself, this action of going
00:17:05to war with Iran, caused many voters who had voted
00:17:09for Mr. Trump two years ago to turn away from him.
00:17:12But when Mr. Trump was asked, he said, "Yes,
00:17:16I generally agree, but not
00:17:19the war itself, but its economic consequences, which
00:17:22raised gasoline prices and so on, created dissatisfaction."
00:17:26Now, these two, whether the war itself
00:17:29or its consequences, may not be very different.
00:17:32After all, until that war happened, its
00:17:35consequences would not
00:17:37have appeared. But he went a step further and said
00:17:41that if time turned back
00:17:44and he was in the same position he is now, he would
00:17:47do the same thing again because we should not allow Iran to have nuclear weapons.
00:17:51This, therefore, in this respect, differs from Mr. Vance, because Mr. Vance
00:17:55says that this action was costly for us and
00:17:58was a mistake, and he even goes a step further and says
00:18:01that when the American people asked voters what
00:18:05they want to see for us to trust
00:18:08us again, meaning Republicans,
00:18:12their answer was to stop the war, focus on reducing
00:18:15costs, and also transform
00:18:18America's relationship with Israel, meaning reducing this
00:18:22alliance, which was strange that Mr. Vance wrote this so
00:18:26explicitly. As a result, the argument is
00:18:30that the issue of war is very important to Americans,
00:18:34and going to war itself naturally
00:18:37made them unhappy, and both Mr. Trump and Mr. Vance not only accept
00:18:41this unhappiness and state it as a reality,
00:18:44but also accept that this was a mistake,
00:18:47and the cost is that they lost the Senate
00:18:51in addition to the House of Representatives. Regarding Mr. Vance's statements,
00:18:54because Mr. Vance, due to his position
00:18:57in opposition to the war from the very beginning,
00:19:01now because of the letter he wrote to Mohsen Rezaei,
00:19:05he is somewhat under the spotlight in Iran.
00:19:08But I want to say that Mr. Vance has changed his name three times,
00:19:12changed his political stance twice, from opposing Trump to
00:19:16supporting Trump and becoming Vice President,
00:19:19and now during all this
00:19:22time that 8 months have passed since the war, he has
00:19:26stood behind the president. Now that the Republicans
00:19:29have lost, Americans themselves say it's a blame game.
00:19:32Everyone is looking for who is to blame, and Mr. Vance, because he
00:19:36is trying to save his
00:19:39political career and political job, and his political future,
00:19:42the first thing he has done is to distance
00:19:46himself from the
00:19:49policy in Mr. Trump's administration that caused
00:19:52the Republicans' defeat. So one needs to look
00:19:56at this cautiously as to whether this means that Mr.
00:19:59Vance is doing this out of
00:20:02a desire to oppose war
00:20:06or whether he also has an eye on his own political
00:20:10future and changed his position for this reason.
00:20:13That was a very interesting point, Mehrnoush. Bahman,
00:20:17you see how it is in America, as soon as an election
00:20:21is over, or rather, the results are announced, everyone asks,
00:20:24"What's the next election about? What will happen in the next presidential election?"
00:20:28Now I want to ask you a similar
00:20:31question. Do you think that in these two
00:20:34remaining years of Mr. Trump's term, the Democrats,
00:20:38many of whom will probably try to become the party's candidate,
00:20:42but among the Republicans, do you think
00:20:45what will be the winning card is showing opposition
00:20:49to Mr. Trump or cooperating with him?
00:20:52Using that political machine he created
00:20:56for the Republicans. Well, from Mr. Vance's point of view, one answer is that regarding
00:21:00the war with Iran, he at least does not hesitate
00:21:03to create some distance between himself and Mr. Trump.
00:21:06Mr. Vance's calculation is that the further things go,
00:21:10the better it is that the Republican candidate,
00:21:13whoever the Republican nominee is, those who
00:21:16compete, do not become or are not seen
00:21:25and the behaviors they do with the support, with the approval
00:21:28of Mr. Trump, having Mr. Trump in mind.
00:21:31And this is actually separating
00:21:35the path, which we are seeing here in this article. There
00:21:39are other people, of course, Mr. Pompeo, the Secretary of State, is one
00:21:43of the candidates who is expected to enter the presidential
00:21:46election race for the Republican Party's nomination.
00:22:20be a transition, they can get the party's nomination.
00:22:24Exactly. Thank you very
00:22:27much. In America, this period, when a president
00:22:30is in his second term, in his last two
00:22:33years, they call him a lame duck.
00:22:37He can't do much, but we have to see. Mr. Trump usually
00:22:40manages to keep himself
00:22:43connected to any issue
00:22:47and was able to come back after
00:22:50four years of Joe Biden's presidency. Let's see if he can keep
00:22:53himself relevant for these two
00:22:57years and still be
00:23:00someone who is a decision-maker,
00:23:04whose opinion matters in the Republican
00:23:07Party. And I must also say
00:23:10that we don't just have ducks. Our
00:23:13story is not just about ducks. We also have geese
00:23:17in Washington. Both ducks and geese,
00:23:21because last night's hero in Washington,
00:23:24alongside the lame duck they say is in the White House,
00:23:27there is a duck in Washington named Olivia
00:23:31who was the leader of a referendum campaign
00:23:34to ban the sale and consumption
00:23:37of foie gras and duck liver in Washington
00:23:40restaurants. People voted overwhelmingly
00:23:44that from now on,
00:23:46the sale of liver of birds that are
00:23:50force-fed to fatten their livers and served in restaurants
00:23:53should be banned in Washington. This is
00:23:57the summary of Ms. Olivia, a famous duck whose
00:24:01election results in Washington D.C. were announced last night.
00:24:04Let's go to the question I asked. I asked
00:24:07which book Abdul Saeed, the senator-elect
00:24:10of Michigan, should place his hand on when
00:24:14his inauguration and oath ceremony are held.
00:24:17First of all, the answer is that he doesn't have
00:24:20to place his hand on a book. He just has to raise his right
00:24:24hand. If he wants, he can place his left hand on a
00:24:27book, and if he doesn't want to, he doesn't have to.
00:24:31The oath is to the US Constitution,
00:24:34and the ceremony will be conducted by Vice President J.D. Vance,
00:24:38who is also the President of the Senate. The Vice President
00:24:41is also the President of the Senate. He must conduct this
00:24:45ceremony. Most people who went
00:24:48to the Senate in America placed their hands
00:24:51on the Bible. Those who were Jewish placed
00:24:55their hands on the Torah. And interestingly, there was
00:24:59also a senator a few years ago who placed his
00:25:03hand on an old copy of the US Constitution.
00:25:06A senator who was re-elected this year, Jon
00:25:09Ossoff, placed his hand on the Torah, but
00:25:13in his pocket, he had some
00:25:15immigration documents
00:25:18of his grandparents, his father.
00:25:21They were Jewish from Europe who had come to America,
00:25:25and he had brought these immigration
00:25:28documents with them. This is the ups
00:25:31and downs of the US elections. It's over. I thank Mehrnoush,
00:25:35and also Bahman, and I thank you for
00:25:39watching or listening to us during this time.
00:25:42Take care of yourselves. Good night and
00:25:44good day.
00:26:01The security and intelligence breaches of the Islamic Republic
00:26:04have made it vulnerable to Israel. Why
00:26:08is this level of Israeli intelligence penetration into the Islamic Republic's
00:26:11structure so high, and why has Israel so far
00:26:15been unable to achieve its desired results using
00:26:19this intelligence and security asset?
00:26:22Success in intelligence penetration and
00:26:25eroding a political system is different from
00:26:28your ability to change political power.
00:26:34Look at the pictures
00:26:35you have.
00:26:40They put me in a situation where I was linked to the state, and the children
00:26:43went one way, and I went another. And my son, Saeed,
00:26:46who was two and a half or three years old,
00:26:50came and sat with me. I told him, "Mom, I want to tell you something.
00:26:53Keep your name and your sister's name
00:26:56and your brothers' names in mind." And this crime, meaning
00:27:00changing the lineage of the child. The SOS International was aware
00:27:03of most of the details. All the children, when they enter the children's
00:27:07villages, must have regular reports about them sent to
00:27:10the main office in the platform. No, I just feel like they are
00:27:14acting. Of course,
00:27:15they are acting. They are not looking
00:27:21for free access to real news. That's
00:27:23your right.
00:27:27To tell the honest story of events,
00:27:31one must make tough
00:28:03decisions and ask tough questions. What is the level of your
00:28:06relationship with America or intelligence agencies?
00:28:09We can also see the wave of explosions from here. We have
00:28:13not yet fully seen the effects of the war. Delivering a true
00:28:16and comprehensive picture of the news is our professional duty.
00:28:20BBC Persian.
00:28:22Follow the latest news from Iran and the world on BBC
00:28:26Persian's WhatsApp channel. We select the most important
00:28:30daily news and publish it on our channel, and by
00:28:33joining this channel, you can follow our important daily
00:28:37reports. To join the channel, go to
00:28:40the update section and search for BBC Persian. Click
00:28:44on the follow button and join. To
00:28:47not miss important news, click on the bell icon at the
00:28:51top of the page. All of our messages are published
00:28:55in the update section and separate from your chats.
00:28:58Rest assured. All your information is protected.
00:29:01No one can see your name, phone number, or
00:29:05photo. Not even us.
00:30:23Headlines. Continued reactions
00:30:25in Iran to Trump's allies lose in
00:30:29congressional elections, from burning the US president's poster to
00:30:33advising his deputy to prevent another
00:30:35attack. Democratic leaders' plan after
00:30:39winning the US midterm elections is to end
00:30:43the war with Iran, which is among their
00:30:45priorities.
00:30:47Iran's Ministry of Youth reacts to the removal of the
00:30:51Adam and Eve dating app from Google. It says that the registration
00:30:55of 13 and 14-year-old girls was with the consent of
00:30:58their families and that this age is legal for marriage in Iran.