Republicans Face Reckoning After Election Defeat, Some Call for Trump's Removal

The Republican Party faced a devastating defeat in Tuesday's congressional elections, triggering internal calls to expel Donald Trump from the party and end his MAGA movement. The loss has plunged Republicans into crisis mode, with some demanding a return to traditional conservative values. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis compared the defeat to a mass extinction event, criticizing the Trump administration's handling of the Epstein scandal and artificial intelligence policy. Congressman Don Bacon, who lost his Nebraska seat, said voters rejected "populism, chaos, Putin and tariffs," urging a return to Reagan-era principles of free markets and low taxes. The Wall Street Journal called for a "moral reckoning," while Vice President JD Vance distanced himself from Trump, citing inflation and the Ukraine war as key lessons. Former Trump advisor Steve Bannon compared the situation to a Western film's doomed fort, and ex-congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene explicitly demanded Trump's removal from the party.