Will Pump Price Concerns and Travel Hassles Shake Up the Midterms?

In 2024, a truck crashed into Canaw in Moresque, where I work.

146 of our dogs needed homes fast.

We asked for help on Facebook.

Our stories spread through WhatsApp messages and Instagram reposts.

Immediately, people stepped up.

And just six hours later, every dog was fostered.

I'll never forget how our community showed up for us.

Learn how over 3.5 billion people connect to what matters with meta

at meta.com slash community.

I'm Kennedy.

I'm Bill Hemmer.

I'm Harris Faulkner.

And this is the Fox News rundown Monday, March 23rd, 2026, I'm Grinnell Scott.

The nation is heading toward the midterm elections.

That's in November.

But what's happening right now could affect who's leading the Congress and where we go

from there.

The trend lines are pretty ugly for the GOP.

There is a quickly shrinking window for stuff to turn around, although it's a hell of a

turn around that's going to be needed.

But if Republicans want to hold the house, they're going to need those trend lines to

reverse and they're going to need to reverse real soon.

And the sobriety tax season can be open season for scammers now using AI to reach even

more phones, feeds and inboxes more quickly.

Go to the source and verify.

If you didn't initiate the contact, it's incoming with a phone call, an email, a text

message, even a post on social media, DM into your social media account.

If you didn't initiate it, go to the source.

And I'm Jason Schafetz.

I've got the final word on the Fox News rundown.

We've reached the only weekend march where there is not a state holding a midterm primary.

So let's take a moment and look at where we are right now.

The US Supreme Court, after hearing arguments today, will work toward a decision in the

case of Watson V. Republican National Committee on what mail-in ballots the state of Mississippi

can process.

This as Republicans push hard to pass the Save America Act.

Senate Majority Leader John Foon says the votes aren't there right now to pass it.

We intend to keep pushing forward and ensure that the American people know whether their

senators are for or against, ensuring that only American citizens vote in American elections.

And of course, there is conflict in Iran.

But as President Trump signals the battle may be winding down, the Department of War

and its Secretary Pete Hegsf is seeking a reported $200 billion more in operational

funding.

It takes money to kill bad guys.

So we're going back to Congress and it folks there to ensure that we're properly funded

for what's been done, for what we may have to do in the future.

These and other issues in government over the next several months could be the difference

in continued Republican control or a democratic resurgence.

Midterm elections have been change elections against the party holding the White House,

more often than not.

Chris Melman, his founder of Melman Consulting in Washington, D.C.

President Trump lost the House in his first midterm, Biden lost it in his first midterm,

Obama and his first Clinton, his first.

The only modern president who didn't lose the House in his first midterm was George W.

Bush and that was because of the effect of 9-11 where he was seen as a wartime president

responding to the being attacked.

So history is not on your side number one.

Number two, a majority of Americans feel like the country has been heading in the wrong

direction and they felt that way most of this century so far.

They certainly feel that way now with the largest concerns per usual being about the economy.

Where are things heading?

What do I think about prices and inflation?

So all of the trend lines are working against any party holding the White House and when

you look at the polls and when you look at the odds makers, the call sheet odds makers

as of this morning see an 85% chance the Democrats pick up the House and a 50-50 the Senate

flips.

Well, let's get into some of those things that could have that kind of effect and we'll

start with the war in Iran.

We're getting kind of mixed messages here.

President Trump saying it might be time to start winding down the war but Secretary of

War Pete Hexf saying we need 200 billion more dollars which some might extrapolate to

think that this thing may go on for a bit.

Does that mix message hurt the president?

Does it hurt his administration?

I think first and foremost, a lot depends on how's this thing go.

If somehow in two weeks, six weeks, we end up with legitimate regime change with the

region being safer, that's good.

If by contrast, it proves very difficult for the U.S. to extricate itself.

If oil prices spike, if we end up with a stagflationary recession, that's really bad.

That all said, it's pretty hard to find a midterm or presidential election where a war

has been a benefit.

Remember George H.W. Bush led the coalition that in 100 hours kicked the fourth largest

army, Saddam Hussein's Iraq army, out of the Gulf, out of Kuwait in Gulf War I, and

yet he didn't get reelected roughly two years later despite having a 90-something percent

approval rating.

So foreign policy is not generally something people vote and it's generally not something

that is credited to a sitting administration.

For your mixed message point, even if things go optimally and in a month we're able

to de-escalate, we've used a lot of munitions, we've spent a lot of money and we're going

to have to replenish stocks and supplies so we are not cut short in the event of other

global events.

We're getting pretty low on stuff we can't afford to be low on, so they may need the

money.

I want to touch on a couple of other things and one here at home, the Department of

Homeland Security remains partially shut down.

The Democrats seem to be standing firm that they want reforms with ICE to be a part of

any deal that's made.

Meanwhile, the president has said, well, while TSA employees aren't being paid, we're going

to bring ICE into airports to help with securing checkpoints.

There seems to be an impasse here as to how to move forward with this.

Where do we stand as far as you see it with how these negotiations are going and are they

making any progress at all?

It's hard to see a lot of visible progress.

It's crazy how often we've seen government shutdowns in these budgetary standoffs.

In part, Congress is supposed to have more power in the scheme of things than they have

had recently and particularly over the last year and a half, the administration has regularly

ignored things that historically one might have turned to Congress under the article

one of the Constitution to opine on to decide on.

For the Democrats, their theory is this is the only leverage they've got.

They're unhappy with what they see as unconstitutional behavior by ICE.

Certainly we've seen American citizens being killed.

We've seen people who are legal citizens getting deported without due process from time to

time.

Others correctly point out there was no control over the southern border.

We were long ignoring our immigration laws.

What the founders created here, as we celebrate our 250th anniversary of our country, was a

system that's requiring compromise, that required people to come together and find middle

ground.

Well, the current politics that we all live in make finding that middle ground a career

ending move.

We're stuck in one of the stupidest, narrowest shutdowns and until there is enough public

pressure, which seems like it's going to come from insanely complicated TSA lines at airports,

it's going to continue to inflict damage on regular American citizens, on people who

work at the Coast Guard and TSA.

The politicians are only starting to feel the public pressure and unless and until they

do, as Churchill said, American leaders do the right thing after trying everything else.

The Democrats say Republicans are holding TSA hostage to try to get them to sign on to

any alleged illegal activity of ICE.

The Republicans say the Democrats are responsible for the shutdown of DHS.

Who's right?

Well, Republicans base tells them they're right and Democrats base tells them they're right.

So that's all they care about.

I'd ultimately suggest both have a point where they're right and both have a point where

they're wrong.

ICE clearly exceeded its legal and constitutional authorities in some ways, but it's also true

that the Biden administration didn't enforce the laws on the southern border.

Both sides are right and both sides are wrong and common sense people would say, well,

how about we enforce the laws on the southern border?

We try to find, I don't know, people who aren't here legally and committed crimes and we

work on deporting them instead of what former secretary Nome was doing, going to Home Depot

and just, you know, grabbing people, there's a common sense, common ground that 70% of Americans

would agree is the way to move forward, but our political system isn't designed to encourage

people to do what 70% want.

It's the 15% on the left and the 15% on the right who punch way above their weight.

I do want to ask you about something happening this week.

The Supreme Court will consider the arguments once they hear them in the case of Watson

versus Republican National Committee now.

So Mississippi case that in short, it challenges that states mail-in ballot deadline to accept

mail-in ballots up to five days after election day, if it's postmarked by election day.

And the president has said he wants to reform elections in this country.

How divisive is that going to be in this and should this be a case?

I know Supreme Court arguments are boring, but is this something America should be paying

attention to?

Without a doubt, there are ongoing fights and concerns about election integrity, about

election security, about voter disenfranchisement.

This feels like yet another one where both sides have degrees to which they're right and

both sides have ways in which they're wrong.

I would imagine a lot of people who think that it's reasonable to say that a ballot needs

to be not just postmarked on election day, but perhaps received by election day.

That's a reasonable approach.

I'm not sure it's one that the federal government needs to be in charge of.

The founders built in the Constitution, states and localities being in charge of elections.

But at the same time, 85, 90% of Americans, so that's a majority of all parties, think

uh, having things like voter ID is a sensible way to make sure we all collectively have more

confidence in our elections.

It's become an area where both sides are maneuvering, thinking they're going to have

advantage and thinking the other side is mispositioned.

But again, there are pretty common sense, pretty compromised ways to move forward.

So it feels like we're fighting often because we're just trying to find reasons to fight

thinking we're making the other guys look bad.

There are a lot of bigger problems for the country that we're not focusing on when we're

worrying about postmarked ballots versus received ballots.

I'll wind it up with this and I kind of alluded to this at the beginning, but I will sort

of couch it in a different way.

When you look at all of these things coming together, you look at the conflict in Iran.

You look at DHS continuing its partial shutdown.

You look at election integrity.

You look at also high prices at the gas pump, high prices in the grocery store.

And when you tie it all to the midterms coming up, do voters have long memories?

Do they consider everything or is it, you know what, walk into the ballot box, hold your

nose and vote?

Well, look, there's some for some number of folks voting is just merely team red, team

blue and nothing else matters.

A lot of folks are kind of fed the ongoing cultural or misinformation, disinformation from

the left or the right.

And so they go in and they vote based upon facts that may not even be reality, but they

are the perceived reality of those individual voters.

As for exactly what's going on, some combination of a recency bias.

So what, tell me what it looks like in September and October.

And if the market is roaring, if prices are coming way down, if jobs are expanding, you

know, in the second and the third quarter of this year, then maybe people are feeling

much more optimistic.

And right now the trend lines are pretty ugly for the GOP.

There is a quickly shrinking window for stuff to turn around, although it's a hell of a turn

around that's going to be needed.

But the general sense of how the economy feels isn't a did my 401K go up last week.

It's sentiment that builds over a period of weeks and months.

Right now there's a lot more anxiety and a lot more economic anxiety than there is enthusiasm

and consumer confidence.

If Republicans want to hold the house, or for that matter, hold the Senate, let alone

the house, they're going to need those trend lines to reverse and they're going to need

to reverse real soon.

You're going to keep an eye on all of that.

Bruce Melman is the founder of Melman Consulting in Washington, DC.

Thank you, Bruce, for your time and your expertise and thanks for being here with us on

the rundown.

I appreciate the invitation, thank you.

That's pure automotive joy.

I'm Peter, the owner of Muscle Car Junior.

It started as a hobby, then I started posting about it.

Before I knew it, I built a business for storing muscle cars on Facebook Marketplace and

the community of car lovers on Instagram.

Today, new customers send me what's that message is from all over.

Not bad for a hobby.

Learn how meta helps over 35 million American businesses, like Peter's Grow, at meta.com

slash community.

This is Jason Chaffetz with your Fox News commentary coming up.

Tax season is heading into the home stretch.

We've actually been pretty pleasantly surprised this year.

Despite filers having new deductions to navigate from Trump tax breaks, Daniel Sabula, office

supervisor for Liberty Tax in Wilkesbury, Pennsylvania, tells Fox 56.

With all the changes, with the overtime rules, the additional senior citizen deduction, we

are expecting some longer processing times, but this year, been pretty good so far.

However, one thing that hasn't changed is the risk of being scammed.

It's a year round threat, and the tools used to trick people out of their money keep evolving.

Scams are escalating in incident rates.

Eva Velasquez is CEO of the Identity Theft Resource Center.

And with AI and all of the technology that's available to the bad actors, it's just made

it so much easier for them, really to scale it and to make hyper realistic hooks.

So those emails that used to get we'd see spelling errors, or they just looked off.

They look so much like legitimate businesses or government agencies.

So it's, these tools have made our lives easier, but unfortunately, they've made it much

easier for the bad actors to perpetrate these scams.

And what are the most common types of scams you're seeing now?

Is it still things like the phishing emails and the texts?

Well, the most common scam that we're seeing, and it's been pretty steady, is impersonation

scams.

So the bad guys pretending to be someone they're not, whether it's businesses, government agencies.

And when I say businesses, think just across the board, you know, banks, your retailers,

platforms that you have a relationship with.

And within that, it is definitely phishing and vision, which is by text.

So we also have to look at AI deep fakes and voice cloning.

And then there's a lot of misinformation on social media.

So you're also seeing really realistic videos for things like, especially around tax

time, you know, tax hacks and tax loopholes that are just, they're just pure fiction.

Right.

And I know there's this type, don't tap mantra, which I want you to explain.

But also does that kind of fold into this?

I mean, you can view something without necessarily falling for it or clicking it, I guess.

That is a wonderful way to remind people not to click on links if they weren't expecting

the communication.

So we at the ITRC always tell folks, hey, go to the source and verify.

If you didn't initiate the contact, it's incoming phone call and email, it text message,

even a post on social media, DM into your social media account.

If you didn't initiate it, go to the source.

One of the common themes that scammers share, one of their tactics is a sense of urgency.

So they catch you off guard by reaching out when you're not expecting it.

And then they push somehow to quickly get you to provide information, to share personal

details.

So how do you avoid falling for that?

It's, I know you're not supposed to click links, but it's hard when something sounds urgent

and they make it sound so urgent, that's really one of their, one of their best tactics,

I guess.

It is.

There are a couple commonalities with all scams and that, that sense of urgency is one

of them.

It's not always a sense of, oh, something bad is going to happen, it can be sometimes.

But often it's a fear of missing out.

If you don't act now, you won't get to take advantage of, you know, whatever this thing

is that they're saying they're offering.

And I think for people, the easiest thing to remember is we actually are all vulnerable

to scams, just differently.

One of the worst things that we can do is adopt a mindset that that won't happen to

me.

It only happens to other people and that just isn't the case.

We're so busy and as savvy as we can be, we educate ourselves, but under the right set

of circumstances, something comes through, maybe you're waiting on communication from one

of these places and you go, oh, that must be it.

You still really can't trust it if it's incoming.

So I encourage people to adopt this high degree of skepticism to all of this incoming

communication.

And then I encourage people to just take five.

You don't have to react right away.

There is nothing bad that's going to happen.

If you wait five minutes to clear your head before you take your next step.

I want to go back to something you said because you mentioned how certain tactics have gotten

better.

Like it's not so easy to catch misspelling in a subject line or in an email.

What about the advice of scrolling over, hovering over the URL to make sure you can see where

it's coming from?

Does that still hold true or are scammers now able to fake that part of an email or text

as well?

It is possible for that to be faked.

Just like phone numbers, people still rely on caller ID and spoofing has been around

for a long time.

I think it's really hard for people to remember each of these small pieces of advice.

Some of them work.

Some of them will no longer work.

Some of them in the very near future won't work because of technology.

It's so much easier if you just have to remember one thing, which is if you didn't initiate

the contact, go to the source.

So we've really stopped trying to educate people on how to spot a fake email or spot a scam.

Of course we tell folks, these are what the scams look like and we will call out when

it's easily detectable, but I don't want people to rely on that.

I'd rather that they just rely on this skepticism, this sense of I'm not going to engage with

that because I don't have to and that is a much easier thing for people to remember.

Just go to the source and don't engage.

Could you hear more about voice mimicry in Robocalls now?

Can a scammer sound like a specific IRS agent, for example, or even someone's accountant?

Sure.

We have to realize that with voice cloning, anyone can sound like anyone.

It is not something that we can rely on any longer.

They can sound like you're relative.

They can sound like someone you know deeply.

So again, and the great thing about that advice is you go to the source.

If someone is calling, especially if it's a family member or someone in a position of

authority, we've seen law enforcement, legitimate law enforcement officials, people who are out

in the public eye like local sheriffs, local police chiefs, folks like that, who've had

their voice cloned in these calls, AI is changing the game.

Not because of the ability to use the voice cloning, it's very cheap now and so they have

access to it.

It's the scalability of it.

Now they can have this scam that they want to perpetrate and they can use AI and agents

to just help them push it out at a scale that we haven't seen before.

Children are on phones and other electronic devices all the time now.

How do we protect our kids from identity theft and other scams?

I encourage parents to really do a couple of things.

One, model the behavior and age appropriate ways.

Best example of that I can give, you know, you get a fishing email, maybe you're sitting

there at your computer there in the same room and you just say, oh no, that's not real.

I'm not going to respond to that.

So you sort of talking out loud, saying what you're thinking and exposing young children

to the fact that they can't trust everything on social media, on the internet, online,

essentially, staying safe online is just as important as keeping your kids safe crossing

the street.

You know, we teach them how to navigate the roads.

We have to teach them how to navigate the online landscape and that can just start

with conversations, real conversations and taking the time and making yourself available

to have those conversations.

Heading into the closing weeks of tax season, I just want to go back to that for a moment

and what kind of red flags people can watch for and I asked that in part because you could

have a random breach at a retailer or tech company months later potentially lead to a fraudulent

tax return being filed, which is really scary.

We still encourage people to file as early as they possibly can so that that window isn't

open for the bad guys.

And also to get an IP pin, that's an identity protection pin.

It's one of the best defenses that you can put in place.

It doesn't cost anything.

You do have to get a new one every year so there's just a little bit of extra effort that

you have to make, but it is a really great way to protect yourself.

And then if you get any communication, incoming communication, purporting to be from the IRS,

really, the way that the IRS contacts you is through the mail.

So if you get a letter in the mail, that's something you definitely want to follow up on,

but they're not going to text you, they're not going to send you a message on social

media and they're not going to call you.

So you don't even have to engage in those interactions, those conversations.

So what is the most important thing you want people and the IRS not texting or calling

you is a big one.

But what are, what are other really important things that you want people to remember if you're

hearing this about protecting themselves, their money and their identity?

I think I just want people to remember that they are vulnerable to these bad actors.

Having a sense of immunity can be dangerous because you think, oh, they're not after me.

Why would they want me?

Your identity data and your identity credentials are valuable.

The bad guys don't care what your true financial picture is.

They don't care if your credit rating is good or bad.

They will find ways to monetize your data regardless of what that true picture is.

And we're all human.

So I want you to put your guard up a little bit and remember, it can happen to me.

It's okay if I need to ask questions.

It's okay if I need to step back.

There's an incoming email or phone call, any of those things.

It's okay to ask for help.

At the ITRC, everything we do is free to the public.

AARP has great resources.

Federal Trade Commission has great resources.

Just even just asking a friend, don't be ashamed or embarrassed if you need help, verifying

if something's legitimate or if the worst happens and maybe you do engage with a scammer.

Eva Velasquez, CEO of the Identity Theft Resource Center.

Thank you so much for your time.

It was a pleasure.

Thank you.

Here's a look at the week ahead.

Monday, President Trump hating the road, heading to Memphis, Tennessee to highlight the

achievements of the Memphis Safe Task Force.

There's also a big case being argued at the Supreme Court of recounting late arriving

mail-in ballots.

Tuesday, the NBA Board of Governors holding a meeting on the agenda, League It's Spatch

and possibly adding two teams with Las Vegas and Seattle as the only two candidates.

Wednesday at CPAC, USA, 2026 and grapevine, Texas, bringing conservatives together, speakers

so far include, Senator Ted Cruz in Texas, Attorney General Ken Paxton, among others.

Medal of Honor Day is celebrated and sandwiched changes he makes, is donating 100% of the

day's sales to the Special Olympics.

Thursday, I Heart Radio Music Awards are on Fox.

Ludicrous is hosting John Mellon Campbell, receiving the Icon Award and Miley Cyrus, the

Innovator Award.

Friday, want to look through the eyes of a former president, Alexander historical

auctions as selling a pair of eyeglasses that belong to Abraham Lincoln.

And that's a look at your week ahead.

I'm Tom Graham, Fox News.

Instagram Tina Counts default teens into automatic protections for who can contact them and

the content they can see.

Explore Tina Counts and all of our ongoing work to protect teens online at Instagram.com

slash Tina Counts.

I'm Guy Benson, joining the weekdays at 3 p.m. Eastern as we break down the biggest

stories of the day with some of the biggest newsmakers and guests.

Listen live on the Fox News app or get the free podcast at GuyBensonShow.com.

Raiden review the Fox News rundown on Apple podcasts or wherever you listen.

It's time for your Fox News commentary.

Jason Chafetz, what's on your mind?

We're going into the second month of federal employees at the Department of Homeland Security,

not getting a check.

Somehow some way Democrats have to figure out a way to make this happen because you have

good families, working families, people that need their checks that are going without.

And it's not just the TSA, cyber infrastructure, FEMA, the Coast Guard.

These people by the tens of thousands are going without paychecks.

I don't know that I could do this.

I don't know that anybody would be able to do this.

You have people that are raising children that have in one case that I heard about a special

needs child who has to be cared for, but they can't afford to go to work where they're

making no income and pay for the child care.

Democrats claim to be the most compassionate that they care about the working man and

women.

Well the working men and women within Homeland Security, they're also people and yet they're

going without a check.

And that is wrong.

We are harming far, far too many people.

And this is the second time we've had to go through this silly fiasco, all to be leveraged

in a game where the Democrats want to make a point.

My point is we can't keep doing this.

This is unfair.

These people should not be used as pawns in this game.

It's time for the Democrats, Chuck Schumer and Hakeem Jeffries to buck up and say, you

know what, families first, we're going to take care of these people and we'll continue

the political fight, but we'll do so using a different set of tactics.

I'm Jason Chaffetz, Fox News contributor and host of the Jason and the House podcast.

You've been listening to the Fox News rundown and now stay up to date by subscribing to

this podcast at FoxNewsPodcasts.com.

Listen, add free on Fox News Podcasts plus on Apple Podcasts and prime members can listen

to the show, add free on Amazon Music and for up to the minute news, go to FoxNews.com.