President Donald Trump blasts Rep. Peter Roskam after losing election

President Donald Trump had harsh words for Rep. Peter Roskam, the incumbent Republican who lost his 6th District seat Tuesday.

Roskam, R-Wheaton, lost to Sean Casten, D-Downers Grove, in the midterm race.

The race garnered national attention as Roskam held one of the 23 seats Democrats flipped to retake control of the U.S. House of Representatives.

“Peter Roskam didn’t want the embrace,” Trump said during a Wednesday news conference.

Trump ticked off a number of House Republicans who he said lost their seats because they “decided for their own reason not to embrace, whether it’s me or what we stand for, but what we stand for meant a lot to most people.”

Trump told reporters the defeated men and women “did very poorly” because they distanced themselves from him.

“I’m not sure that I should be happy or sad, but I feel just fine about it,” Trump said.

Casten won with 149,059 votes across the district compared with Roskam’s vote total of 133,136, according to unofficial results from McHenry, DuPage, Kane, Cook and Lake counties. Roskam had held the seat since 2006. He also served as the House Ways and Means Subcommittee on Health chairman and sat on the Tax Policy Subcommittee.

The seat in the district has been in GOP hands for four decades. Roskam voted with Trump nearly 95 percent of the time, according to FiveThirtyEight. Roskam’s office declined to comment Wednesday.

During an Editorial Board meeting with the Northwest Herald in September, Roskam said Trump's policies have benefited the district, but he "should throw the Twitter feed away."

Trump didn’t rebuke Rep. Randy Hultgren after his loss. Hours before polls closed Tuesday, Trump on Twitter praised Hultgren, the Plano Republican who lost his 14th District seat to Democrat Lauren Underwood of Naperville

“Congressman Randy Hultgren (R) of Illinois is doing a great job. Get out and Vote for Randy – Total Endorsement!” Trump tweeted.