Vance to Head Fraud Task Force, Trump Pressures Allies on Iran, SBF Vying for Pardon: AM Update 3/17

0:00Say you've always wanted to have a backyard oasis. Here's the thing. If you get smart with your money, you can do things like that. With Empower, you can start making the most out of your money so you can go out and live a little. Isn't that why we work so hard to have some fun with our money? So use Empower and get good at money so you can be a little bad. Join their 19 million customers today at Empower.com. Not an Empower client paid or sponsored. Hey, good morning, everyone, and happy St. Patrick's Day. I'm Mark Halperin, host of NextUp, filling in today for Megyn Kelly. It's Tuesday, March 17, 2026, and this is your AM Update.

0:35If we found half of the fraud that's taking place in this country, we would have much more than a balanced budget. A new Trump administration task force targeting benefits fraud nationwide, following investigative reports exposing large-scale scams inside Minnesota's welfare system. I've been a big critic of all of the protecting of countries, but if we ever needed help, they won't be there for us. President Trump criticizing allies during Operation Epic Fury for their reluctance in getting militarily involved with reopening the Strait of Hormuz, the nation grappling with the fallout from a powerful weather bomb cyclone in the Midwest and a scorching heat wave building in the Southwest.

1:17And disgraced crypto founder Sam Bankman-Fried lobbying for a presidential pardon from prison. The crypto industry's biggest allies in Congress say he should stay right where he is. All that and more coming up in just a moment here on your AM Update.

1:36Our sponsor, the Electronic Payments Coalition, says Washington politicians are always getting in your wallet, and now they're messing with your credit card. They say your credit card and the security it offers are under attack and that Senators Dick Durbin and Roger Marshall want to change the nation's payment system to benefit corporate megastores like Walmart and Target at the expense of everyday Americans. Credit cards can keep your payments secure and provide rewards that families use to help make everyday purchases more affordable. The Electronic Payments Coalition says the Durbin-Marshall mandates would let corporate megastores cut corners on credit card processing, routing transactions over cheaper untested networks with weaker security and fewer protections.

2:18Find out more at guardyourcard.com and consider telling Congress to guard your card. President Trump signing an executive order from the Oval Office yesterday, creating a welfare benefits fraud task force, a new federal initiative aimed at cracking down on fraud across government assistance programs. The effort will be led by Vice President J.D. Vance, with Federal Trade Commission Chairman Andrew Ferguson as the vice chair and White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller serving as senior advisor. The executive order outlining staggering fraud with Minnesota's taxpayer-funded welfare programs potentially totaling in the billions.

2:57From the order, quote, there is strong reason to believe that similar problems exist in other states, including California, Illinois, New York, Maine, and Colorado. such extensive undetected fraud could only exist in a system that ignores it. The order directing the task force to, quote, coordinate and accelerate a comprehensive national strategy to stop fraud, waste, and abuse within federal benefits programs, including programs administered jointly with state, local, tribal, and territorial partners. The move, part of a broader push by the Trump administration to crack down on what officials say is rampant waste, fraud, and abuse of taxpayer dollars.

3:35Just last month, President Trump nominating longtime federal prosecutor Colin McDonald to lead a newly created role at the Justice Department, Assistant Attorney General for National Fraud Enforcement, tasked with coordinating major fraud investigations across the country. The push coming after a wave of investigative reporting on massive fraud tied to Minnesota's benefits programs, City Journal and independent journalist Nick Shirley documenting schemes involving alleged fake providers, fraudulent claims, and organized network siphoning taxpayer money from programs meant for the needy. President Trump saying the scale of the fraud is likely much larger than what has already been uncovered.

4:16You've been seeing it, and seeing it pretty big in Minnesota, $19 billion, but that's only for one little aspect of the fraud. It's$19 billion, and California, as they say, is 10 times worse than other states are. And this is not a Republican-Democrat thing. This is wherever it's taking place. It seems that it's usually in blue states. If it's in a red state, we're going there, too. But it seems that it's heavily, heavily, heavily Democrat. If we found half of the fraud that's taking place in this country, and I think you have a chance of doing that, we would have much more than a balanced budget.

4:59White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller yesterday arguing the total losses tied to fraud across federal programs could ultimately reach into the trillions of dollars. What we found since President Trump came into office is that the Democrats have set up a system to funnel hundreds of billions and ultimately trillions of dollars to migrants that are in our country, oftentimes from places like Somalia. So as an example, ICE recently asked a group of illegal immigrants that were in detention whether or not they were receiving Medicaid. Half of them raised their hands and volunteered that they were on Medicaid.

5:36We are going to see the first ever effort in American history to reclaim the ultimately trillions of dollars that were stolen from taxpayers. When this theft is exposed, we will see that if all of it were stopped, it would be enough to balance the budget. The extraction of wealth from American taxpayers to people who don't belong here is the primary cause of the national debt, and this is the first ever effort to shut that down. Vice President Vance also outlining how the task force aims to close gaps in the system, allowing fraudsters to flourish. We started to figure out one big hole that existed is that the agencies of the government weren't actually talking to each other.

6:14So The Treasury would have evidence of financial fraud, but wasn't talking to the Department of Justice about it. Health and Human Services had evidence of Medicaid fraud, but wasn't talking to the Department of Treasury about it. So what this executive order does is force the entire apparatus of the federal government to do two things. Stop the fraud in the American taxpayer and make sure that the benefits that ought by right go to American citizens, go to American citizens and not to fraudsters. President Trump offering a sweeping update Monday on Operation Epic Fury in Iran, saying more than 7 ,000 targets across the country have been struck, claiming U.S.

6:49attacks have cut ballistic missile launches by 90 percent, drone attacks by 95 percent, and destroyed more than 100 naval vessels, along with dozens of mine laying ships threatening commercial traffic in the Strait of Hormuz. Mr. Trump now urging other nations, especially those heavily dependent on oil shipments through the strait, to join the effort keeping the critical waterway open. We strongly encourage other nations whose economies depend on the strait far more than ours. You know, we get less than one percent of our oil from the strait. Some countries get much more. Japan gets 95 percent.

7:26China gets 90 percent. Many of the Europeans get quite a quite a bit. South Korea gets 35 percent. So we want them to come and help us with the straight. The president criticizing several allies for what he described as reluctance to participate in the operation. Numerous countries have told me they're on the way. Some are very enthusiastic about it and some are. And some are countries that we've helped for many, many years. We've protected them from horrible outside sources. and they weren't that enthusiastic. We have some countries where we have 45 ,000 soldiers, great soldiers, protecting them from harm's way.

8:12And we have done a great job. And we want to know, do you have any minesweepers? Well, we'd rather not get involved, sir. I said, you mean for 40 years we're protecting you and you don't want to get involved in something that is very minor? I just want the fake news media and everybody else to remember that that was said because I've been a big critic of all of the protecting of countries because I know that we'll protect them. And if ever needed, if we ever needed help, they won't be there for us. I've just known that for a long period of time. Despite the tensions, the president saying the Iranian threat has been largely neutralized, describing Iran as a, quote, paper tiger.

8:58Oil markets reacting Monday. Brent crude, the international benchmark, dropping to just over$100 a barrel after reaching highs of over$106. As President Trump says some other nations are responding to calls for assistance, though declining to name which ones. Mr. Trump also highlighting U.S. oil production, pointing to expanded drilling efforts, including new activity in Venezuela. We're number one in oil by double now. We drill, baby, drill. would double any other nation, and it's going to be soon triple any other nation, and that doesn't include Venezuela, who's been great. By the way, millions, literally millions of barrels of oil are being taken out, and it's been a great help, and it's been to their great benefit.

9:45It's a tremendous oil source, and we're stepping it up very rapidly. The big companies are going in and they will actually numbers in a pretty short period of time, numbers that they've never been able to do, we'll be doing a lot of oil under that land. The president asked about the possibility of making a deal with Iran. Mr. President, you've said that Iran does want to make a deal now into the third week of this bombing campaign. What would that deal look like? What are the ask that you're making of the government? They're talking to our people. I don't know if they say that to you. Maybe they do.

10:26Maybe they don't. Don't forget, they are a country that for years, I didn't know this until recently, they're a country based on disinformation. And now they're using disinformation plus AI. And that's a terrible situation. They're negotiating. And we always talk. Somebody said, well, would you talk? Why would you even talk to them? I talk to everybody. because sometimes good things come out of it. But I don't know if they're ready yet. They're taking a pounding. I don't know if they're ready yet. And we don't even know their leaders. Look, all of their leaders are dead, as far as we know. But they're all dead.

11:05We don't know who we're dealing with. Coming up here, the country reeling from a powerful weather bomb cyclone in the Midwest and a scorching heat wave building in the Southwest and a disgraced crypto kingpin pushing for a presidential pardon, but even some of Congress's biggest crypto allies want nothing to do with it.

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12:13If you are looking to take back control of your health from the inside out, consider Armra. And they have a special deal for you. Go to armra.com slash Megan, A-R-M-R-A dot com slash Megan, or enter Megan to get 30 % off your first subscription order. That's A-R-M-R-A dot com slash Megan. Severe weather rocking large swaths of the nation, a blizzard battering the Midwest and Great Lakes, while a dangerous early season heat wave grips the Southwest. NBC News reporting nearly 30 million Americans were under winter storm alerts Monday, with more than 120 million people from the Mississippi Valley all the way to New England under wind alerts, and 60 million from Florida to New York facing severe storms and possible tornado threats.

12:59An intense bomb cyclone blizzard battering the Midwest, plunging more than 230 million Americans into below-average temperatures from Sunday to Monday, according to Fox Weather. USA Today explaining the conditions that create these brutal storms. Meteorologists say this type of winter storm forms through a process known as bombogenesis. This typically happens when a cold air mass collides with a warm air mass and a mid-latitude cyclone occurs. As the cyclone intensifies and the system's pressure drops quickly in a short period of time, it becomes a bomb cyclone. Think of it as a winter hurricane, say a Category 1 that's often accompanied by strong winds, blizzard conditions and rain or snow.

13:40CBS News, ABC and Fox all capturing the dangerous conditions. These wind gusts are so strong, but it's creating snow drifts like this all across downtown Green Bay. As the city saw its biggest snowfall in one day on Sunday in more than a century. The nasty weather also caused more than 3 ,000 flight cancellations across the country Sunday, more than half of them in Chicago and Minneapolis. Dozens of crashes reported in Minnesota, this semi-truck spinning out in the middle of I-35 in the Twin Cities area. Power outages exist across the state of Michigan and Wisconsin. It's near whiteout at points and the dangers are just extreme.

14:22Transportation systems hit particularly hard, flight-aware reporting more than 4 ,900 flight cancellations and roughly 20 ,000 delays nationwide on Monday, with Chicago and Minneapolis among the hardest-hit hubs. The National Weather Service, or NWS, reporting as of yesterday morning more than 25 to 35 inches of snow blanketing southeastern Minnesota, central Wisconsin, and northern Michigan. Around 120 ,000 customers in Michigan without electricity Monday afternoon, with nearly 12 ,000 outages in Wisconsin, according to PowerOutage.us. With much of the country facing extreme cold and windy storms, the Southwest facing the opposite extremes with an historic heat wave.

15:07Roughly 39 million people under heat alerts yesterday as an early season heat wave intensifies, reports NBC. Quote, highs above 90 degrees Fahrenheit are expected to be widespread in Southern California with parts of Arizona and Nevada reaching the triple digits. The NWS reporting some areas will see temperatures 20 to 30 degrees above normal for this time of year. Yesterday, Phoenix, Arizona, in the low to mid-90s, AccuWeather forecasting temps as high as 107 degrees by Friday. According to the NWS, the heat wave will extend south and east across the week, reaching as far as Mississippi by Sunday.

15:46Sam Bankman Freed, or SBF as he's known, the disgraced founder of the collapsed cryptocurrency exchange FTX and trading firm Alameda Research, now facing opposition in Congress as he pursues a possible pardon from President Trump. SBF convicted in 2023 on wire fraud, conspiracy to commit money laundering, and other charges tied to the collapse of his crypto empire, which imploded in 2022 amid evidence of potential fraud. Once the poster boy of the crypto industry, SPF donating millions to Democratic politicians and some Republicans while lobbying for crypto-friendly regulations, the collapse of FTX wiping out about$8 billion in customer funds, along with more than$1 billion each in investor money tied up in FTX and its sister firm, Alameda, sending the crypto market into a tailspin.

16:39Authorities arresting SPF in the Bahamas in December of 2022. He was ultimately convicted on all counts and sentenced in 2024 to 25 years in prison, while also being ordered to forfeit roughly, yes,$11 billion. Now the former crypto executive appears to be seeking clemency from President Trump. FBS, using his social media accounts run through a proxy to praise President Trump and criticize the Biden administration. One February post praising President Trump's effort to lower prescription drug prices, quote, pharma gouges Americans on prescriptions. Trump Rx is how you start to stop that. It's a huge step in the right direction.

17:19Now insurance companies need to get on board so that Americans don't have to choose between fair prices and insurance coverage. In a Saturday ex Post, SPF arguing that while oil prices have recently spiked, they remain significantly lower under President Trump compared to the Biden years' urgent critics to, quote, calm down. Politico reporting SPF is struggling to gain traction on Capitol Hill. Senator Bernie Marino, Republican from Ohio, and a big-time crypto supporter telling the outlet, quote, the guy's a piece of shit. The guy shouldn't be pardoned. The guy should go to jail for a long, long time.

17:56Another crypto ally in Congress, Senator Cynthia Loomis, Republican of Wyoming, also throwing some cold water on a pardon effort, quote, I hope the president doesn't fall for that. He hurt a lot of people he should have to spend some time contemplating that. President Trump granting clemency to other high profile figures in the crypto world since retaking office, including online black market Silk Road founder Ross Ulbricht and Binance founder Chang Peng CZ Zhao, who pleaded guilty to money laundering related charges. However, SBS effort appearing to be a tougher battle. President Trump telling the New York Times in January that it is not planned to pardon Bankman Freed asked directly about the possibility of the president responding, I don't know him at all.

18:39No. All right, that'll do it for your AM update. I'm Mark Halpern, host of Next Up Catch the Megyn Kelly Show today, live on Sirius XM's The Megyn Kelly Channel 111 at Noon East on YouTube slash Megan Kelly and on all the podcast platforms. Say you've always wanted to have a backyard oasis. Here's the thing. If you get smart with your money, you can do things like that. With Empower, you can start making the most out of your money so you can go out and live a little. Isn't that why we work so hard to have some fun with our money? So use Empower and get good at money so you can be a little bad.

19:15Join their 19 million customers today at Empower.com. Not an Empower client paid or sponsored.