On The Hill: November 08, 2026

It is Sunday, November 8th, 2026, and we welcome you in to Fox 5's On The Hill. Tom Fitzgerald here with you for the next half hour. We're going to begin on the headlines and, of course, all eyes on the Hill. Congress is back in session this week after Republicans' stunning defeat in both the House and the Senate. Democrats taking control again on the Hill in January. Now, President Trump making changes in his own White House staff. Stephen Miller replacing Susie Wiles as President Trump's chief of staff. The longtime Trump ally is behind some of the president's most controversial moves, including enforced immigration enforcement across the country and mass deportations. He's got great manager. Meanwhile, Secretary of War Pete Hegseth may also be in the hot seat this week. Outgoing GOP Congressman Thomas Massie plans to bring articles of impeachment against Hegseth. He is pushing back on that impeachment talk, though, in a video saying, quote, It is the politics of personal destruction. Dozens across the country securing resounding victories of Democrats won in states that haven't seen Democrats win in Congress in years. you In Virginia, Democrats flipped two Republican seats with eight Democrats now in the U.S. very House delegation and three Republicans from Virginia. Shannon Taylor ousted Rob Whitman much. in Virginia's first congressional district. And we want to welcome in Representative-elect Shannon Taylor, too. Fox 5's on the hill for her first appearance this morning. Congresswoman-elect, thanks for being with us. Congratulations on your victory. Rob Whitman had been in office for nearly 20 years. Why did you beat him? Well, during this entire campaign, starting September of last year, Whether we were here in the suburbs of my county, Henrico, or going to the historic triangle or up to the northern neck, I continued to hear the same thing from voters. And they were Democrats, independents, and Republicans. Everyone was terrified about the rising costs of living, gas, utilities, food, healthcare. And they were also furious about what was happening in DC. You know, air of corruption and an environment that was allowing elected officials like Rob Whitman to engage in self-indulgence than doing the job that they were elected to do, which is representing the priorities of the people in the district. I believe that is exactly what you saw reflected on the vote on Tuesday. And I am very excited about going to DC and representing everybody in the first congressional And making sure I can do what Whatever I can on day one to start lowering costs. You've been a career prosecutor in Harford County. Obviously, there's been a lot of talk right now about what Democrats are going to do once they get their hands on the reins of power. Some of the conversation has been whether or not you Democrats are going to focus on the economy or this is going to be a Congress of investigation of impeachment. What is your feeling on that? The voters want their representatives to go to Washington to do the work they're supposed to do, which is to govern. So I'm gonna be focusing on. Working on issues that I can go across the aisle and talk to, you know, colleagues, maybe those new colleagues from the Republican Party. I want to focus on issues like transportation. I want to focus on the Chesapeake Bay that is the jewel of the first congressional district. I want to do everything I can to make sure that we're going to repeal the tariffs that are hurting my farmers and my small business members. And just not even in the first district, but across America. I want to get us out of this war in Iran that is making the cost of living shoot up for everybody. And I want to make sure that we can restore that health care funding so people can have access, not just a physical access to the hospitals, particularly in the rural jurisdictions, but able to have access to afford a health care plan. I believe the healthcare system is broken, it needs to be fixed, and I wanna do it for everybody that I represent. So you're gonna be on the Hill tomorrow. That's the orientation tomorrow. There's been a lot of talk lately about who is going to lead the Democratic Party. Maryland Senator Chris Van Hollen said that in his body in the Senate, that Chuck Schumer shouldn't be given a blank check to become majority leader. There's been some questions about Hakeem Jeffries as well in the House of Representatives. Are you supporting Hakeem Jeffries as Speaker of the House? I was grateful that Leader Jeffries came to Virginia to help us campaign. I've heard some of his agenda that is in line with my priorities, like lowering costs. But of course, I will get there. I will see who else is interested in this position. But at the end of the day. Who I support is going to be the person who's going to put forth the agenda that is going to help the people in the first congressional district. All right. Shannon Taylor is the representative elect in Virginia's first congressional district, a Democratic flip in the midterm elections. Congresswoman, we appreciate you being with us. We hope it's the first of many appearances here on Fox 5's on the Hill. Thank you so much. All right, we appreciate you. Coming up, we're going to take a closer look at the economy. What were the drivers that really got people out to those polls on Tuesday? Fox 5's On The Hill continues right after this. That's the most in history. So in other words, the markets all over the world, when they heard that the Democrats won that election, the market dropped $3 trillion, the highest amount in history. But it'll level off and we'll do great. That's President Trump talking about the markets after the midterm elections. There are concerns about artificial intelligence, data centers, economic data, all putting out a bit of a mixed message to voters. Shashank Joshi is the D.C. Bureau Chief of the Economist. He's kind enough to join us on the Hill. Good to see you. Good morning. It's been a busy couple of days. The big issue in this midterm election. ...was the economy. But there seemed to be a divide between what voters were saying and what you guys who deal with the data says. So who's right? Is it the data pushers who are saying there are very positive trends in the economy right now, or is it the folks telling us they're having a hard time out there? I think they're both right, right? I think you can see the paradox of this economy is that it's doing well on some counts. GDP growth is enviable by the standards of where I've come from, from Europe, right? Leaving us in the dust. Jobs are doing well, 165,000 jobs added in October. Very, very good pace. Unemployment is low, 4.1%, except in this area, D.C., where it's struggling. The difficulty, of course, it doesn't feel that way. And the prime cause of that, as you know very well, is inflation. It is gas prices in particular, which are 40 percent higher than they were back in February at the beginning of the war. And that is what drives that discrepancy between these two camps. Connect the dots for us on that, though. So if these drivers in the economy are hitting numbers which are pleasing to economists. Why is that not getting to people's pocketbooks? Well, part of the answer, I think, is that there's a wealth effect going on, right? That if you think about stock market gains, and the stock market has done very well, propelled by the factor you just mentioned, AI, data center construction, which has swelled private sector capital expenditure, some of the returns from that are going to those who hold. Assets like stocks, that is not a good chunk of the economy. People who depend on driving long distances or diesel for their farms, those are not the ones that have necessarily benefited from rising asset prices. So let me give you a bad analogy here. I'm raking leaves yesterday, and the wind at one point goes in my direction and is helping me rake the leaves. Is the wind here economically going in the wrong direction for consumers? That it is benefiting. The big data centers and the people at the higher end of the market, but not the folks who seem to be kind of trying to get the leaves in this pile, but the wind's going the other way. That's right, because those winds are doing some good, but they're not benefiting your mortgage rate, right? They're not bringing your mortgage rates down, which is still stubbornly high. And the Fed is hiking or holding rates stable. Those winds are not bringing gas prices down. That depends on a deal over Iran, by the way, the odds of which may have improved in the last couple of days. So the winds are sort of helping some things, but they're not helping I'm helping you bring down some of those factors. factors that are pushing the cost of living up in so many parts of the country. So now Democrats have been handed these big majorities in both the Senate and the House. What can they do to improve the economy? They ran on it, and we repeatedly asked them, what are you going to do? And the war in Iraq was... Pretty much the predominant answer, but don't they have to start producing results for people? That's right. And of course, ending the war in Iran isn't up to them entirely. They can hold the administration to account, but the administration presidents have a lot of power in foreign policy. What you do see are kind of interesting statewide measures in different places. I saw James Tallarico the other day in Texas, the senator-elect from Texas, say, well, we could work with the federal government on things like diesel taxes, kind of cut diesel taxes to bring fuel prices down. I think you may absolutely see one point of consensus between Democrats and Republicans, which will be health. Healthcare costs, how in the next Congress in 2027 do you bring healthcare costs down on healthcare premiums? I think that'll be a real point of interest for both parties. Now we said at the start of this broadcast that Stephen Miller has been appointed as the new White House Chief of Staff. He's pretty much known. For a lot of these domestic programs like this enhanced immigration enforcement, the activities of ICE across this country have been highly controversial. What do we know about him on domestic policy, things like the economy, that kind of stuff? I think we know very little at all, actually. Very, very little. We know that he's a hardline culture warrior on these issues on transgender rights or on immigration or on... Foreigners, H-1B visas, all these sorts of things to the point where I think even within the administration, a lot of people have said, wow, you know, Stephen, you've gone too far here. They were very concerned by the impact of the immigration raids on their own electoral prospects. We don't know what he thinks about core economic issues like AI regulation. What does he think about that? We don't really understand that. Shashank Joshi is the D.C. Bureau Chief for The Economist. Thank you so much for your insight and analysis. We're going to have to come back real soon as this year and congressional session rolls on. Thank you. We're going to continue here. A look at the Iran war. Where do we go from here? What is the latest? We will talk with military analyst Major Mike Lyons coming up. And after the break, we will sit down with Montgomery County's newly minted... County Executive Will Giroldo will join us live as Fox 5's on the Hill continues live right after this. Back to Fox 5's On The Hill. You know, Vice President J.D. Vance is one of several Republicans who have blamed the Iran war for the Republicans' big losses in the midterm election. This, as the U.S. now says it has struck an Iranian vessel in the Gulf of Oman. The war pushed gas and oil prices and also may have cost the Republicans their majorities in both the House and Senate. Democrats say they want to end the war. But is it that easy? I want to welcome back in retired U.S. Army Major Mike Lyons, kind enough to join us again. So, Mike, this was a promise that Democrats made again and again. How are you going to fix the economy? Well, we're going to end the war. But is it that easy? I don't think so. I think the president's got the next 60 days or so until the 20th, until the new Congress gets seated before he runs out of money. And Congress can only thing they can really do is take the money from him in order to do this. They can maybe put war powers acts on him to keep him from doing anything. So again, the next 60 days will determine what the president does. I'm not sure we have the assets are in the region. There's two carrier strike groups that are there. There's one heading there right now. The Democrats want to I don't want to end it, but what does that look like? Does it look like victory? I know the president said we had victory, but it doesn't really look like that's the case. Mike, this has been going on for eight months now. Are we in the final quarter of this, or are we just at halftime? Yeah, you know, the conflicts that last over six months usually then ended up. It's ending going more than six years in some cases, if you look at it historically. I think we all thought this was going to be quick, as the president said, and then Secretary of War Hex had said as well. But that just doesn't seem to be the case. And that's why I think if they start more strikes right now, they'd have to be, you know, overwhelmingly brutal and overwhelmingly, you know, going after revenue targets for the Iranians, because to say it would be over in 60 days because of these strikes is just not a reasonable expectation. So what do you see as the purpose of these military strikes, right now? Is this to get a victory operationally, or are these strikes to push Iran back to the negotiating table? I think the strikes won't push the Iranians back to the negotiation table. I think that Israel still continues to want to do decapitation strategy. I think they're going to continue to go after their leadership. The United States can't say that overtly. We don't want to have regime change that's there. We want more or less regime compliance. We want the Iranians to, you know, join the international community. But again, from what's happened, especially the pause that's taken place over the past few months, there's just no expectation that the Iranians are going to do that. International politics plays a part in this as well, Mike. We've just received word that a new government is going to be formed, not by Benjamin Netanyahu in Israel. If Israel has a potential change in its top leadership, could that change how the U.S. proceeds in this war? I think it could, Tom. I think that, you know, Israel has been our staunchest ally here and from an intel perspective and from targeting and from where we want the military mission to go. If the new Israeli government is not supportive of this, then I'm afraid this opportunity has been squandered. It's been an important mission, I think. We were going to have a war with Iran at some point in our history, and it's important that we've done, you know, take away their nuclear nuclear capability take away their missile capability, but if Israel Still now is going to be off the table in here. It's going to be very difficult for us to go this alone. Retired U.S. Army Major Mike Lyons, Mike, Veterans Day is this week. We appreciate your military service and we appreciate you lending your insight and analysis to this program for so many years. We appreciate it. Thanks, Tom. Thanks for having me. All right, we appreciate you. Thanks. Coming up next, he won the Montgomery County Executive Race. Now he's got a big to-do list. Will Jawando is joining Fox 5's On the Hill coming up live right after this. Welcome back to Fox 5's On The Hill. Montgomery County, Maryland, right on the border of the nation's capital, is Maryland's largest jurisdiction with more than a million people. It is facing several major financial challenges, including a budget deficit estimated to be possibly $300 million. Will Jawando is now faced... We're tackling those challenges. He is the newly elected Montgomery County Executive. Welcome back to the program, County Executive-Elect. You're going to take office just next month. You'll get an early start. One of the big things that has been dominating Montgomery County politics over the last couple of years has been your budget. And I know you've dealt with it as a member of the county council. You'll now have to deal with it as the county executive who presents that budget. $300 million, as we say in New Jersey, is not nothing. Often. You talked the other day in announcing your transition team of difficult choices ahead. Are those difficult choices going to include cuts of jobs for county employees or taxes for residents? Well, look, I don't want to prejudge anything, but I can say those are both things I want to avoid. I think we, when I say difficult choices, we have to decide what we need to prioritize. I'm not going to advertise. Education is important. I chair the Education Committee. We need to make sure we deliver on critical county services. People want their trash picked up. They want their roads to be paved. Thank you. And so I think it'll be a process of going through the budget. I have to submit a budget March 15th. Of looking at where we can find efficiencies, where we can save money. We obviously are working on growing our economy, but I don't want to prejudge anything. It'll be a tough budget. The state has a tough budget. We have to see what they do as well. Look, the schools are always, you know, the wild card. You talk to Marc Elrich, the current county executive, or Ike Leggett or Doug Duncan, you know, the schools will come to you and say, we need X amount of dollars. And the county executive has to figure it out. How much are you going to be on the same page with the schools? Because that's going to radically alter what you're dealing with. Yeah, it's about half our budget. I've got three kids in the schools, high school, middle, and elementary. It's also why people come to Montgomery County. It's an economic engine. So you have to balance that. I think, look, when I go in, I'll be faced right away with negotiating labor contracts, for example. What are the pay raises going to be? Those kind of things. So those are big financial drivers. Most of government is people because they're delivering services and they're doing a great job. So, again, I think schools have to be a priority. As you know, I've prioritized education funding in my time on the council. I think we need to look at everything we're doing, but that doesn't mean we can do everything all at once. We're going to have to measure it out over years. Crime is a big issue for a lot of folks. There was a crime spike in Montgomery County a couple of years ago. You are going to be appointing a new, we believe, county police chief. What is your operating principle when it comes to law enforcement? Yeah, I have three basic things. We want a highly trained, highly effective law enforcement agency. That's part of our public safety apparatus. That has the right mission, the right focus. We want them responding to violent crime, not to people dealing with homelessness, for example. And we want high standards and accountability. And I think I want a chief who shares that vision, who understands how important it is for the trust between community and police to be high, especially now with what's happening with federal law enforcement. So the great thing is this is a great. A law enforcement agency, one of the largest in the country. A lot of people want to work here. Over the years, the police union has opposed some of the policies that you have presented as a council member. Do you see them as a partner or as an opponent? I see everyone as a partner until otherwise identified. And even after that, if we disagree, we can still be partners. That's the thing with politics. You know, I won my election with about 80% of the vote. I'd like to say I'm an 80-20 guy. If we can agree on 80%. And disagree on 20, we're doing pretty good. Well, according to the Fox 5 projection, you only got 78% of the votes. I was rounding up. I was rounding up. And there's still votes to be counted. There are still votes coming in to be counted. Will Jawando is the new County Executive Elect of the great Montgomery County. We're going to continue our conversation over on our streaming network at Fox Local in just a moment. We thank you for spending part of your Sunday with us here on the Hill. We will be back next week. We'll see you in just a few minutes over on Fox Local.