Trump blasts 'crooked' elections as Democrats rack up historic midterm wins

Trump stood in the Oval Office on Thursday and tore into an election system he called so corrupt that Americans have no idea. He singled out the newly elected democratic socialist mayor of Los Angeles, branding the win disgraceful. It came two days after voters handed Democrats control of both the House and Senate.

Trump has zeroed in on Alaska's still-uncounted Senate race, demanding on Truth Social that ballots cast for two minor contenders be handed straight to the Republican incumbent. Republican Dan Sullivan trails Democrat Mary Peltola, who sits at 48.2 percent to his 47.9 percent. Trump argued there is no other fair solution, pointing to a fringe candidate who shares the incumbent's name and another minor hopeful, Gerald Heikes.

The night's biggest cliffhanger sits in Mississippi, where 43-year-old Scott Colom is edging ahead of Republican incumbent Cindy Hyde-Smith. His cushion grew to 1,724 votes by Thursday afternoon with only a handful of ballots left, and the final tally could take days. A Colom win would make him the first Democrat to take a Mississippi Senate seat since 1982, and the first African American to do it since 1874.

Democrats now hold at least 54 Senate seats, while Republicans have 44. Their House majority blew past 250 seats on Thursday, the party's largest in almost two decades. Trump threatened to veto Democratic bills, and Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer fired back that a year of vetoes would make the 2026 rout look tame by 2028.

The wave carried newcomers past barriers that had stood for generations. Keisha Lance Bottoms, the great-great-granddaughter of an enslaved person, became Georgia's governor and the first Black woman to hold the office anywhere in the country. Michigan's Abdul El-Sayed became the first Muslim elected to the US Senate, James Talarico ended a 38-year Texas drought, and Adam Hamilton became Kansas's first Democratic senator in 94 years.

Republican congressman Warren Davidson of Ohio pinned the defeat on Trump's drawn-out war with Iran and his global trade fights, saying the party lost the election because of them. Young voters in particular, he said, felt betrayed.