Inflation, Fuel Price and the President’s Fed Fight

This is a new era of American innovation. Google is offering free AI training to U.S. small businesses with a Google AI professional certificate so they can start using AI to get more done. Learn more at g.co slash American Innovation. Google is offering free AI training and tools to U.S. small businesses so they can innovate in ways both big and small. Built by Google experts, the Google AI Professional Certificate equipped small businesses with practical AI skills. Through hands-on projects, they can start using AI to get more done and unlock new opportunities for their business. This is a new era of American innovation. Find out more at Grow.com Google slash business. I'm Stuart Vonie. I'm Martha McCallum. I'm Jason Chaffetz, and this is the Fox News Rundown. Tuesday, April 21st, 2026. I'm Jessica Rosenthal. The president's pick to lead the Fed testifies today before the Senate Banking Committee, but will he get past all the Republicans? Republicans would like to hear about the rate cuts and where he believes the neutral rate. That's the rate the Federal Reserve believes is standard to keep the economy humming along with jobs and inflation steady. I'm Dave Anthony. Congress has until the end of the month to extend a provision of foreign surveillance put in place after 9-11. We absolutely have to have it as a matter of national security. And without it, we're going to be flying blind. And Congress is going to call up these very same intelligence officials after an attack and ask them how in the world this happened. And I'm David Marcus. I've got the final word on the Fox News rundown.

President Trump said last June before announcing his pick to lead the Federal Reserve... If I think somebody's going to keep the rates where they are or whatever, I'm not going to put them in. I'm going to put somebody that wants to cut rates. There are a lot of them out there. And he has since picked Kevin Warsh, a former Morgan Stanley VP and former Federal Reserve Board Governor to lead the Fed as chairman. Kevin Warsh has been critical of the current Federal Reserve chairman and said a future with AI will change monetary policy. He told Avin Financial's Sid Khan in an interview this past December 4th. If you're looking at the data, my view is you're backward looking. You're going to be late. You're not going to realize the country is able to have non-inflationary growth faster. So you're going to have to make a bet. But Kevin Warsh's chances at getting through the Senate Banking Committee are complicated. One Republican senator has said he won't vote for Kevin Warsh until the Justice Department resolves its investigation into current Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell for cost overruns of Federal Reserve building renovations. Fox business anchor Maria Bartaromo recently asked President Trump, do you think that Kevin Warsh is going to get confirmed next week? I think so. I hope so, yeah. But I mean, Thom Tillis is still blocking. Yeah, but Thom Tillis is an American. He knows what to do. I think he's, let's see what happened. Kevin Warsh's introductory comments to the committee have been released. He writes, the Federal Reserve should take responsibility for inflation, saying it's a choice and caused grievous harm to Americans, that the Fed has overreached since the 2008 financial crisis, and that Fed independence is earned and depends on performance, not. insulation from political views. The question he's going to come down along party lines. Imagine that. Fox Business White House correspondent Edward Lawrence. The Democrats are going to go after him for not being impartial. I think Elizabeth Warren has already characterized him as a puppet of President Trump. So you're going to see a lot of questioning on the lines of trying to get him to talk about the impartiality of the Federal Reserve and trying to connect him to President Trump at the hit. That's by the Democrats. The Republicans are really looking to see what reforms he wants. to bring to the Federal Reserve. Among Republicans, there's a group think they believe within the Federal Reserve that doesn't stray from the group, which leans liberal. Kevin Warsh, along with a number of the Republicans, believe there needs to be an overhaul of that system to truly get all voices as part of setting monetary policy. So you're going to hear a lot of questions about what reforms he wants to enact where the balance sheet should be, because a reduced balance sheet could then mean more rate cuts. They also want to see on the rate cuts. They also want to hear Republicans would like to hear about the rate cuts and where he believes the neutral rate. That's the rate the Federal Reserve believes. is standard to keep the economy humming along with jobs and inflation steady. There's this discussion, too, about where North Carolina Senator Thom Tillis will fall. Will he vote against this? The president says, let's see that Thom Tillis is an American. Thom Tillis doesn't have any beef with Kevin Warsh, right? This is about pressuring the DOJ to wrap up this investigation into the current Fed chair, right? Jerome Powell.

says his views have evolved. Kevin Warsh says his views have evolved and now he believes we need to ultimately cut rates as we go forward with this. So it will be interesting to see how which Kevin Warsh comes out in the hearings. It'll be interesting to see how Democrats sort of try and pull out that Kevin Warsh that was an inflation hawk back in 2008, 2007. And as Republicans pull out the Kevin Warsh with a, you know, more evolved view as he had talked about it. So, yeah. We know the issue of Federal Reserve independence, as you've already noted, will be of top priority and top of mind. The president did say, if I think somebody's going to keep the rates where they are or whatever, I'm not going to put them in. I'm going to put somebody in that wants to cut rates. To your point about... Kevin Warsh being somebody who previously was more of a fiscal hawk and has now shifted or said that he's evolved, what's the reasoning for that involvement? And it sounds like he's saying it's based in AI. Yeah, he believes, again, yes, he does believe that AI will create productivity. With that extra productivity, there's more room to lower interest rates. The other thing he believes is the balance sheet needs to be a little bit lower. And when you shrink the balance sheet, it gives room to lower the interest rate a little bit more without sort of affecting the larger economy in general. So you're going to look for those two things going forward. But yeah, it would be very interesting to see how this is handled. Ed, you asked. Secretary Scott Bessent last week, if $4 gas prices would essentially be a wash with any tax gains from the big, beautiful bill. And now we're hearing administration officials like Energy Secretary Chris Wright saying gas prices might stay above $3 until next year. I just want your thoughts because you're asking questions at the White House every day. Your thoughts on how all the damage to the refineries, the LNG facilities in Qatar, the UAE, Saudi Arabia. Could this spell a longer-term price hike on oil and energy? You know, the damage isn't really the issue here. The issue is getting that straight open because 20% of the global oil supply comes through the Strait of Hormuz. You know, it's there. They can repair the facilities, which they've done. They just need to get that oil moving. And once traders see that oil moving, that's when the price is going to drop. You know, it is interesting. I did ask the Treasury Secretary about that. You know, what I've heard from... oil experts, people that look at the oil industry, from stock market experts, from the AAA, is that the longer that this goes on, the longer the supply disruption happens, then the more chance there could be a greater damage to the economy as a whole. So if this is just a short-term spike in gas prices and then it comes back down, it won't seep into the inflation numbers. And that's what the Federal Reserve members are looking at, saying, okay, this is only going to be a short-term spike. It's going to come back down. It shouldn't seep into those inflation numbers. If it's prolonged, that means that companies will have to start readjusting how much they have to pay. So goods going from a dock to a store or to a warehouse and then a warehouse to a store, well, gas is involved in all of that. So as the gas prices rise, then the price of your goods rise. And clearly you're seeing polling. The Americans do not want to see that. They're very concerned about the economy going forward.

I want to ask you because tariff refunds start this week. CBP came up with a per court order, a method, a mechanism to begin this process. Tell me, the authority that tariffs still exist under, not all tariffs, but some of the ones that were rescinded under AEPA because of the Supreme Court ruling. They were reenacted under Section 122, but this rarely used authority apparently expires in July. What are you hearing about? What's the next step? Are they going to try and put some of these, shove some of these tariffs under Section 301 or Section 232? Like, what are the, are they kind of scrambling to look for another authority? So the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, Aipa, was shot down basically by the Supreme Court where the president could do certain things under that, but he could not. at tariffs under that is one of the things they said. So there is a mechanism now that the CBP has unveiled. And, you know, they love their, you love your acronyms here. It's the consolidated administration and processing of entities or CAPE is what they're calling it. Cape. And so you, the companies then apply online. They prove that they were the ones that paid the tariff. They will get the tariff back via wire transfer. And that, that started sort of happening this week. That's, that's happening. Now, what's happening behind the scenes from the administration is, yes, the 122 sections are only emergency powers that were for 150 days. That ends on July 24th, if I'm not mistaken, on the date there. Yeah, July 24th. So once that... ends, then those tariffs go away. What's happening now is the U.S. Trade Representative's Office and the Commerce Department are both doing investigations behind the scenes. The U.S. Trade Representative's Office is doing a Section 301 investigation, and the Commerce Department is doing Section 232 investigations. They're looking into countries as well as different sectors. And those investigations are well-established legal authority, and once they are done, the administration could then add tariffs based on those sections. The way this time frame is working out, those investigations will be finished because there have to be public hearings, which are going on right now, or a public comment period, which is going on right now. Then there has to be a report written. The report then has to go to the White House. That should be finished before July, in which case the president can then add those new tariffs on sections and countries based on these two legal investigations, which is what everyone is expecting to happen from this White House. Okay. All right. We'll see. We'll see if it holds. Fox Business Network correspondent, Edward Lawrence. Thank you so much for joining us. Thanks, Jessica. I appreciate it.

Who helps America go farther? Fly higher. Dream even bigger. People do. Since 1879, our people have been more than a source of energy. They've been a source of progress. Today, that same progress is helping deliver record U.S. energy production. Fueling the workers, the makers, the boundary pushers, and risk takers who spark the breakthroughs that move America forward. Learn more about what our people do at chevron.com slash USA 250. 2020 marks 250 years of America. And throughout the year, Bill Hammer takes listeners on a journey through the 250 most impactful moments in American history. Listen and follow now at Fox News Podcasts.com. This is David Marcus with your Fox News commentary coming up. It's considered key for national security, but it also unlocks controversy every time Congress considers renewing a provision of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, Section 702. So don't let what happened on Friday, fool you. Is there objection to the consideration of the bill? And there wasn't any on the House floor after midnight. Without objection, the bill is engrossed, read the third time and passed. And then the Senate also gave unanimous consent on Friday, but only to extend a deadline that would have been yesterday for FISA Section 702 to expire. They've moved it now to April 30th to give lawmakers more time to work out their differences. Security. and liberty are not mutually exclusive. We can have both a good bill that we're insisting on. We'll do that. That's Senator Ron Wyden, a Democrat. President Trump is pushing for an 18-month extension for this provision that allows for warrantless surveillance of foreign communications. He wrote on Truth Social that he's willing to risk giving up his rights as a citizen. for our great military and country. But some of his fellow Republicans also have some concerns, privacy especially, for Americans who might get caught up in that spying. GOP Congressman Ben Klein tells Fox warrant requirements are a good example of... changes that we can make to improve it so that our constitutional liberties are protected while we are protecting the national security of the country. FISA Section 702 dates back to President Bush post 9-11. One of the primary findings of the 9-11 Commission and the Senate Intelligence Committee that studied the intelligence failure was that the United States was leaving good. foreign intelligence on the table. Michael Allen was a senior director and special assistant to President George W. Bush at the National Security Council, currently a managing director at Beacon Global Strategies. We were not collecting it. We were not processing it. And that played a contributory role.

to the worst terrorist attack ever and probably the worst attack on U.S. soil being September 11th, 2001. So President Bush asked the National Security Agency, is there a way for us to do more? They came back and said, yes, that there are foreigners abroad who are either calling to people in the United States or their conversations transit the United States, even if it's a foreign to foreign. call because we were the global telecommunications hub of the world. And sometimes if you were in Baghdad and calling in another place in Baghdad, the conversation on a wire might be rooted through New Jersey. And so we wanted to take advantage of that collection advantage of the United States. And that's why President Bush moved forward with this right after 9-11. And then it was eventually put into statute. in the late Bush administration about 2008. Okay. So this Section 702 has been controversial ever since it started. I mean, there was write-ups about it before Congress made it part of that 2008 law. The concern has always been privacy rights for Americans caught up in this kind of surveillance, correct? It has been. And there have been major... misunderstandings about what it actually does. And so there have been numerous bodies in Congress. There was an outside group called the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board who studied this. And while there haven't been a few abuses, and there always are, but they were minor exceptions. And that the program was probably one of the most important we had to nipping terrorist plots. nipping them in the bud and otherwise staying on top of our adversaries who were trying to take advantage of us. And so it's worth the trouble. We absolutely have to have it as a matter of national security. And without it, we're going to be flying blind. And Congress is going to call up these very same intelligence officials after an attack and ask them how in the world this happened. Can we say for certain that this kind of surveillance has thwarted? attacks that were being planned? Definitely. When I was on the House Intelligence Committee and it was time to reauthorize this particular piece of legislation, we requested of the administration. and declassified many of the terrorist plots or other things that had been occurring or were helped to be uncovered by the existence of this particular law, FISA 702. It's absolutely critical. You know, I think what people get upset about is the idea that the national security agency would listen in on American conversations. And one of the most persuasive reasons why I think they won't is that we have so many threats as a country. Think of it. Russia, North Korea, Iran, China, terrorist groups everywhere. We can barely cover.

all the threats we have. They have no incentive or interest. And of course, it's also against policy and statute to try and survey Americans. That's an entirely different part of FISA that does require probable cause, does require going to a court and getting a warrant. This is different. because of the nature of the communications that I mentioned. Okay. Either someone that were surveilling overseas calls the United States or the conversation transits the United States. Okay. So finding Americans through that would lead to another wire tapping of an American, right? If you were, if an American was caught up in the 702 investigation and that kind of surveillance, then you had to get another wire, a warrant, rather, to surveil the American, right? Exactly. So if we're listening to a particular terrorist overseas and all of a sudden that individual calls a U.S. number, the National Security Agency or FBI, whoever happens to be in the lead, isn't going to hang up the phone immediately because the United States has an interest in, wait, why is this terrorist talking to someone in the United States? Right. And they actually don't know at that moment. Is that person here legally or is he a citizen or not? They look at the content of the conversation. And if it's something innocent, obviously they don't want to pursue it. But if it is not something innocent, the FBI damn sure wants to know and is going to go and open up a case on this individual and have to go to a court if we want to surveil that individual. with a wiretow. Now, when Congress last authorized FISA Section 702 back in 2024, there were more than 50 reforms made to the law. But some on both sides of the political aisle want more. The Brennan Center for Justice, which has been a critic of Section 702 as a tool used for domestic spying, calls for more reform to stop what it calls backdoor searches of Americans' data collected, which it says, are a threat to not only privacy, but also civil liberties and freedom of speech. This is a organization that I think tries to do the right thing, but very often distorts what most of these statutes are going after. And I know that they're occasionally abuses. It's very complicated. Some information might be mishandled. But there is no organized effort to surveil Americans through these particular statutes. The very purpose of them is to surveil foreigners. That's what FISA has always been about because it's the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. And so, yeah, I wouldn't trust them necessarily on all the details. How important is Section 702 first say something that's... gotten even more of a bigger role in our world than even when you were in the Bush administration, cyber security, cyber terror, hacking. It's certainly bigger than it even was 20 years ago and probably will continue to get bigger. How much is 702 able to help in that fight? It helps in everything. It helps in nonproliferation matters. So terrorists and states trying to get...

access to nuclear weapons information. It helps in the cyber realm. It helps on traditional espionage and spying where people overseas are using telecommunications to work against U.S. interests. And without this law, we would be flying blind. we would be purposefully blinding ourselves to information that we can legally receive that has been judged to be legal by a bipartisan privacy and civil liberties oversight board. So rather than the Brennan Center or other partisans to this issue, I would just commend people to go back and look at that particular report, Republicans and Democrats. checking out exhaustively the law. And I think people would be relieved to read it if you have major concerns about how things are going. If Congress cannot agree and Section 702 expires. During this fight, what about U.S. telecom companies? Would they be more reticent to cooperate fearing they could be sued? Definitely. They cooperated after 9-11 because they were patriotic and convinced of the legality. And so was the Bush administration that thought this was well within the commander-in-chief's powers to surveil. foreign communications that might touch the United States. But we put it in statute for a reason in 2008, because as we got farther away from 9-11, we wanted to put everything in statute and let the American people know what we were doing in their name. And that's why Congress passed it. And that's why Congress has repeatedly reauthorized it. And it's very, very important. And it was just something we absolutely have to do. or we're going to be putting ourselves in a terrible situation where we will not necessarily be able to find the next 9-11 perpetrators or any of these other foreign actors, maybe from Iran, maybe Iran's proxy has ball up, or any others who are either coming here for assassination purposes or for other foreign intelligence reasons. So we absolutely need it very badly. What do you say to some of those in Congress? Maybe in the House Freedom Caucus, conservatives who have their doubts about this or standing firm, what do you say to them in trying to work out a deal? They should take advantage of the rights they have as members to receive classified information, to go down to the House Intelligence Committee, to talk to the... people there who do the oversight over the national security agency and the FBI. Not only can you go to them, but they can facilitate briefings from the executive branch on the workings of these particular statutes. So I think it's to keep an open mind and understand this history, read up on it, and go talk to the professionals who have used this law.

to thwart any number of attacks against the United States and its interests around the world. Michael Allen, former Senior Director at the National Security Council and a special assistant to President George W. Bush, currently managing director at Beacon Global Strategies. Good to have you back. Thanks for joining us. Thanks so much. I'm Gianna Jalosi with your Fox True Crime Minute. Michigan authorities have identified the man responsible for the murder of 16-year-old Sherry Joe Elliott, putting an end to a four decades-old cold case and marking the latest crime to be solved using advanced DNA technology. 75-year-old Ronnie Susan Collins has been named the killer of 16-year-old Sherry Joe Elliott. Elliot disappeared while walking to a bus stop in Flint, Michigan in November 1983. Her body was found in a ditch days later. An autopsy revealed she had been sexually assaulted and shot multiple times. Cold case was reopened three years ago alongside the Western Michigan University Cold Case program. The newly reexamined evidence led police to Susan Collins, but he died by suicide in January of this year. Using DNA collected from Susan Collins autopsy, investigators analyzed and conclusively matched evidence recovered from Elliott in 1983, authorities calling the murder a random crime. There's more on the story at foxnews.com or subscribe to the Fox True Crime podcast. I'm Gianna Jalosi with your Fox True Crime Minute.

This is a new era of American innovation. Google AI is helping Americans stay safe from scams, from real-time scam detection on pixel to proactive fishing blocking in Gmail. Learn more at g.co slash American innovation. It is time to take the quiz. It's five questions in less than five minutes. We ask people on the streets of New York City to play along. Let's see how you do. Take the quiz every day at the quiz. Then come back here to see how you did. Thank you for taking the quiz. Subscribe to this podcast at foxnewspodcasts.com. It's time for your Fox News Commentary. David Marcus. What's on your mind? With less than two months to go before the kickoff of the 2026 World Cup, Democratic leaders in New Jersey and New York are scrambling to figure out how to get fans to MetLife Stadium. The results would be hilarious if they did not betray such utter incompetence. New Jersey governor, Mikie Sherrill, has astoundingly announced that a train ride to the eight games at the Meadowlands facility, which usually costs $12.90, will cost $150 for 40 fans. That has FIFA, soccer's global governing body, pulling out a red card. FIFA claims that its original agreement stated that the locales in which the games take place will pay for transportation. But Cheryl claims that agreement was made by the prior also Democratic administration in Trenton and for some reason does not apply now. The bottom line is that the Democrats who have all but hegemonic control of the New York City metro area have had years to figure out the transportation for the World Cup and have done nothing. There's no possible excuse for this. As a matter of logistics, we aren't talking about the D-Day landing here. It's a few soccer games. This should not flummox state leaders. It makes no sense. MetLife Stadium hosts almost 20 NFL games a year. It has hosted the Super Bowl, and Taylor Swift did a three-night gig there that brought out 217,000 Swifties. How many people are we expecting for Ghana versus Uruguay or whatever? It really does feel like the Democrats in our urban areas just throw money around at things like feasibility studies that tend to come back saying that whatever it is, it is not feasible, but might eventually be feasible with more funding for additional studies. But through some magical sorcery of governance in our rural areas, officials are actually capable of just, you know, fixing stuff. The amount of complete incompetence that urban voters except from Democrats is truly bizarre. Just look at the rampant fraud in Minnesota's Somali quality leering centers or California's fraud-laden hospices where miraculously almost every patient recovers. And now, in New York and New Jersey, Democratic leaders are treating the simple and normal task of getting fans across the Hudson River like Moses parting the Red Sea when this is the very kind of thing that city officials could easily have pulled off.

a century ago. Say what you will about the old school Democratic Party machines that ruled places like New York and Philly in the past. They were corrupt as all get out, but they could also get things done. For example, none of this transit nonsense occurred when Giant Stadium hosted the World Cup in 1994. The sad state of affairs all over our great nation from Blue City to Blue City is that the only thing Democrats seem capable of is spending money, often your money, to manage our urban decline. Maybe one day, citizens of our cities will give Republicans a chance, if Republicans even try. But until then, well, good luck getting to the soccer game. This is David Marcus, Fox News, digital columnist, and author of Shared, The COVID Lies That Crushed a Nation. You've been listening to the Fox News Rundown. And now, stay up to date by subscribing to this podcast at foxnewspodcasts.com. Listen ad-free on Fox News Podcasts plus on Apple Podcasts. And Prime members can listen to the show ad-free on Amazon music. And for up-to-the-minute news, go to foxnews.com.

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