A North Carolina Republican who cheered President Donald Trump’s war on Iran when it began is now calling it “terrible policy” and blaming it for the GOP’s midterm drubbing.
Rep. Pat Harrigan of North Carolina unloaded on the conflict Wednesday morning during an appearance on Real America’s Voice’s American Sunrise, a week after he barely held on to his own seat.
Harrigan argued the war wiped out the benefit of this year’s record tax refunds for middle-class families.
“Unfortunately, when April 15th came around and tax returns were the largest in the history of our country, we forced that money, to the American middle class, straight into their gas tanks,” he said, per Mediaite.
“And so the economy and the economic issues surrounding this election were absolutely a complication of the Iran conflict,” Harrigan added. “That was terrible policy, even if it was well-intentioned, and the consequences were incredibly significant.”
It’s a sharp turn for the former Green Beret, who sits on the House Armed Services Committee and backed the war when the U.S. launched Operation Epic Fury in late February.
“Anyone who has been to war, hates war. But I like what we’re doing, and why,” Harrigan said in a statement at the time. By July, he was warning on Newsmax that the conflict could become a “forever war.”
His own race shows the cost. Harrigan beat Democrat Ashley Bell by about a point, 49.72 percent to 48.69 percent, in a district covering Iredell, Lincoln and Catawba counties that he won with 57.5 percent of the vote two years ago.
He isn’t alone. Since last week’s blue wave, more Republicans and MAGA voices have started criticizing the war. Even conservative commentator Victor Davis Hanson listed the Iran war alongside affordability and gas prices among voters’ concerns in a Daily Signal video on Tuesday.
For Trump, the war has dragged on for months, disrupting shipping through the Strait of Hormuz and sending gas prices climbing. Only 35 percent of registered voters approved of his handling of it in a recent Harvard CAPS-Harris poll.
Trump paused military action in the run-up to Election Day, but told TIME that resuming the bombing after the midterms was “possible,” and administration officials reportedly told Gulf leaders to prepare for “a short, intense campaign” once the votes were counted.
Now the administration appears to be backing off. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, traveling to a G7 meeting in France, conceded over the weekend that the war is not “necessarily popular.” On Tuesday, he told reporters, “there’s really no need for major combat operations any longer” in Iran, pointing to the success of economic sanctions.
