On Friday’s “Special Report,” Ben Domenech argued that Republicans need a “reset” heading into the midterm elections,

BRET BAIER: Well, some of the messaging ahead of the midterms, we’re going to hear a lot of that going forward, and obviously President Trump is at the center of it. He was in Texas today. But a big issue obviously is the war in Iran. Six months ago tonight it was launched, this latest version, and a lot of people are watching gas prices. For example, average gas prices today at $ 4.09, you see last week, last month, that’s where the prices are tonight, real time. Oil prices as you look at them $ 83 bucks, down a little bit as some of those shifts are getting through the Strait of Hormuz. This military blockade is also part of this effort by the treasury secretary, and he’s talked about it. “Bessent said earlier this week that we’re launching an economic onslaught against Iran’s financial connections around the globe, and our objective is to sever every economic lifeline that sustains this tyrannical regime until Tehran stands alone.” There is a lot of frustration about the war, how long it’s lasted. That’s definitely a campaign issue. Let’s bring in our panel, FOX News contributor Ben Domenech, host of “The Big Ben Podcast”, Megan Messerly, White House reporter for “Politico”, Harold Ford Jr., former Tennessee Congressman, co-host of THE FIVE. OK, Ben, how do you frame this? And considering it’s six months and there is a little frustration or throwing up hands about where we are in Iran. BEN DOMENECH, FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR: Well, I think that we can certainly compliment the effective use of American military might in terms of the impact that it’s had on the Iranian regime. Ultimately, I think history will actually judge this as being something that was very positive and that was a real step toward setting them back in a significant way. But the impact that it had on gas prices is something that I think was very predictable from the beginning and a risk that in the president had to consider. They’ve now removed the mines from the Strait of Hormuz, according to this latest announcement. They were, what they discovered was actually that many of them were not effective in terms of their deployment. And I think that this is very important going forward through to the midterms. The Republican Party understands that it needs a reset. They’re on their backfoot because of the history involved when it comes to midterm elections, but they also are on their back foot because, quite frankly, their best campaigner, Donald Trump, is not the person who is leading the charge to this point. He said he’s going to start spending money, he’s going to start campaigning across the country. I think that makes a big difference in terms of boosting Republican turnout. They need to have a story to tell going into this run toward the last days of this election.

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