[Anchor]

A "blue wave" swept through the U.S. midterm elections as the Democratic Party secured both the House and the Senate. Democrats secured a majority in the House as expected, and with upsets erupting in Senate battlegrounds, they have reclaimed control of Congress. Facing a divided Congress controlled by the opposition for the remaining two years of his term, President Trump has suffered a severe blow to his governing momentum.

Our first report comes from New York by correspondent Kim Hyunwoo.

[Reporter]

In this midterm evaluation of the Trump administration, the pendulum of the race swung rapidly toward the Democrats from the early stages of vote counting.

In Senate competitive districts—where the key question was whether they could surpass the majority threshold of 51 seats—victory news for the Democrats sounded shortly after counting began.

Six out of seven battlegrounds, including Texas, Kansas, and Ohio—which were traditional Republican strongholds—collapsed.

The Democrats easily crossed the majority mark in the Senate, securing 54 seats so far.

NBC News projected that the Democrats will win at least 244 out of the total 435 seats in the House as well.

One election forecasting organization predicted that the Democrats could capture up to 254 seats in the House.

[CNN: It is a monumental night for the Democrats. Today's election results will completely change the remaining two years of Trump's term and the landscape of American politics.]

With Democrats taking the lead in a majority of regions where President Trump won by a margin of over 10 percentage points in the presidential election two years ago, and multiple Republican strongholds—such as Ohio, the political home of Vice President Vance—being breached, Trump faces a rocky road ahead not only for the latter half of his second term but also for the upcoming presidential election two years away.

[Meg Kinnard / AP Reporter: In the next Congress, Democrats will control both the House and the Senate. Voters have sent a clear warning to President Trump in this election.]

This marks the first time in four years that the Democrats have captured both the Senate and the House, and the first time in 20 years since 2006 that an opposition party has flipped both chambers at once in a midterm election.

President Trump also acknowledged the Republican defeat.

[Donald Trump / U.S. President (Fox Phone Interview): I think the Democrats did well. They did really well. They fought hard. I think the issue of Iran was also a factor.]

The angry sentiment of voters exhausted by high inflation and the war in Iran turned the blue wave into a giant tsunami, handing a harsh report card to the Trump administration.

(Photo: Yonhap News / Reported by Lee Hee-hoon | Video by Park Choon-bae | Graphics by Kim Hangil, Kim Ye-ji)