The Final 5: October 20, 2026

Spending, the Brewers are 19th in baseball in total payroll at $139 million. The Rays are 25th at $114 million. For comparison, the L.A. Dodgers spent $430 million on their roster this season. Hope you have a good night. The Final Five with our Jim Lokey starts right now. But I looked at his ass, and then I looked at his legs, and I said, his ass is s***. It's like a pile of muscle. Why, thank you, Mr. President. I'm Jim Lokey, this is your final five let's do this that actually happened today and everything else you're about to see over the next half hour happened today in the world of politics this is your final five and we welcome you in it is tuesday night we start with white house envoy steve witkoff who's meeting with ukrainian president volodymyr zelensky in norway to discuss restarting negotiations with russia the meeting comes as tensions grow between zelensky and president trump over u.s support for ukraine and how to end the war witkoff is expected to Head to Russia next with the hopes of meeting Vladimir Putin as soon as tomorrow. But today, the president was in the Oval Office talking about the war and bringing up some rather, let's call them, interesting claims about what's going on. There's a woman who's, I guess, not exactly a very beautiful woman, nice woman. And she was on television recently talking about the fact that our men are gone. She's a Ukrainian woman. Our men are gone. They're lost. They're dead. They're in mental institutions. They're walking around, they have no arms, they have no legs in many cases. Running around with no legs, good for whomever they are, but that's not easy to do. Anyway, there have been several major sticking points between Presidents Trump and Zelensky about the war in recent weeks. One has to do with the President's decision to roll back sanctions on Russia that Congress approved earlier this year in a bipartisan vote. Then Ukraine has claimed the US was holding back intel on Russian strikes in an effort to press them back to the negotiating table. It's just absolutely devastating. There's no reason for it. Frankly, Ukraine was making really important gains on the battlefield over the course of the last year, notwithstanding Trump's refusal to help. And I guess Putin has called in a favor using whatever leverage he has over the president. And you're seeing the results of that in this series of decisions. And not to mention the concerns over Starlink access. Elon Musk reportedly urging or reportedly pulling back some of that access that slowed down Ukraine's access to information. Regardless, the war is part of a wider global crisis as conflicts and disruptions to energy supplies threaten to drive up food prices. A new report from the S&P Global Institute warns that rising fuel and fertilizer costs could squeeze food production and have severe effects on poverty rates. The biggest risk is for low-income countries where food already takes up about half of household spending. And the economic squeeze has some Republicans calling out the state of the economy ahead of the midterms. That includes endangered Senator Roger Marshall of Kansas. He's running for reelection in a state that President Trump won by 16 points last time. Why then is this Senate race as close as it is, Senator? Well, no, I think it's the price of gasoline. It's that simple. Unlike Marshall, who's currently running for reelection and campaigning with President Trump, some Republicans have spoken more directly against the president. Take, for example, North Carolina Senator Tom Tillis. He is not running for reelection. I think it's fair to say he's been saying whatever the hell he wants to lately? In the first quarter, I was hoping that it was just a little bit of that we had to work through. But when the becomes policy that's problematic, you get this November, this thing that's going to happen 20 days from now, which I have on my countdown clock as whoop-ass. Whoop-ass? I got to say that. It's right there. There you go. Whoop-ass on the calendar. It's a quieter night in Paris as France continues to experience some of its worst protests in years. Local authorities are now planning to extend overnight curfews to curb days of riots and looting. And according to economic analysts, France is facing more than a billion dollars in losses after thousands of stores were damaged, hundreds of officers injured. And in spite of the fact that many reports say this has to do with deteriorating conditions in schools and economic conditions there in France, Vice President J.D. Vance instead says it's the fault of the immigrants. This is what happens when you bring in people who don't share the culture of the country they come into and when the elites don't try to force assimilation of the new population. I was talking actually to a friend in France about this. I said, how much of this is just the students are pissed off about something and how much of this is actually connected to migration? All right, so yeah, the protesters have said they want to see changes to rising living costs and educational conditions there. Macron cut taxes for the wealthy. He cut both corporate taxes and he cut wealth taxes on real estate. And students have lost funding for schools. Their schools are crumbling. There are less teachers. They're overcrowded. And they took to the streets. Now, for Vice President Vance to say that this is somehow immigrants doing this, I mean, does he understand France? France has had a history of protesting since the French Revolution. It's the most French thing to do. Meanwhile, the president chimed in on the protests today from the Oval Office, branding the protesters, quote, a word that he should know well, insurrectionists. It's right there. It's simmering. If you don't get that out, you're going to have to remove the people. You're going to have to remove those people that are insurrectionists. You're going to have to get them out of the country. You can't just say, oh, we won't take anymore. And they continue to take. Storming government buildings and institutions because you're unhappy with decisions made by said government. We know that pretty well around Washington, D.C., don't It was a chaotic day in the Oval today between President Trump and members of the press. This afternoon, CNN threatened more legal action, claiming the White House is blocking them performing their pool rotation duties. And it stems from the president's failed ban of CNN, Politico, and MSNBC from the White House altogether. The outlet sued, and a Trump-appointed judge blocked that ban indefinitely. But that has not stopped the White House from trying to ban CNN from places like Air Force One. And earlier in the day, we learned the White House was considering going even further. The New York Times out the report the president wants to evict the press from the White House altogether. saying he, quote, would prefer to bring back the indoor pool, the very same pool that FDR added in 1933 for use as therapy for polio. The pool was eventually converted into the current White House briefing room during the Nixon administration. But truth be told, the podium in the briefing room is the most commonly the site of the White House press briefings. And those have been sporadic at best since the departure of former White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt and Katie Zachariah, who only lasted five days. Usually these days, the president just talks to reporters in the Oval Office. And by the way, he has given reporters quite extraordinary access, even if it doesn't always go smoothly. Can you, I'll listen to you? Hey, I'm not playing. You better. You better. I don't know who the hell you are, but you better be careful. Go ahead. Another incident came today when the independent Andrew Feinberg, who has joined us here on the Final Five many times, attempted to ask the president about changes to East Potomac Park that include his new golf course. two weeks from today Maryland voters will go to the polls to decide who will be governor it is a rematch between incumbent Democratic Governor Wes Moore and Republican Dan Cox who lost to Moore by 30 plus points four years ago that recent poll by UMBC has Governor Moore leading Cox 51 percent to 24 percent. My colleague Tom Fitzgerald went one on one with Governor Moore today. Well, I think that the fact that, you know, we had a lot of people who chose not to run against us, I think also continues to show the strength of the administration. And I think it continues to show that we've delivered results for people when people said we have to address violent crime. We've had amongst the fastest drops in violent crime in America that we know there's more work to be done. And back to President Trump, he's in North Carolina tonight, one of the many states he's visiting as part of a huge campaign tour in the waning days of the midterms tonight he was campaigning for Republican Senator John Husted by the way and this is in Ohio uh John Husted is a senator from Ohio who's running against democratic challenger Sherrod Brown and yes by the way john husted is the guy whose ass President Trump was talking about at the top of the show it's not the first time he's done it he claims it's helping husted's numbers so he's over here i'm over here and i'm studying his body i've never studied the body of a man before. It's not my thing. Nothing wrong with it, of course. Nothing. I always proceeded by saying nothing wrong, but it's never been my thing, to be honest with you. But I looked at his ass and I explained it to the people in a huge audience that we had a very similar kind of a thing. And by the time I finished, they did a poll. He's leading by two. He picked up like 12 or 14 points. Did you know that, Tim? By the way, he didn't pick up 12 or 14 points. He was not down by that. And It still seems to be a dead heat between Husted and Brown, who used to hold that Senate seat. But there really is just one strategy here to rally voter support. President Trump has visited more than 15 states this month to campaign for congressional Republicans. But some are still hoping to get that John Husted's ass treatment. That includes my pillow guy, Mike Lindell, who lost his bid for the Republican nomination for Minnesota governor this year. But speaking at one of President Trump's rallies, he's still on his to-do list. Kind of sounds like he wants a dog, too. I do want to say, too, when the president comes here, I'm hoping I can speak at the rally. And all of you, all of you on the, anyone that there, I hear some puppies. But if anyone's wondering where the rally will be, it's either, I guess it'll be St. Cloud or Duluth. Bring your dogs to St. Cloud or Duluth, people. Still to come, the security ahead of the midterms with more than a dozen members of Congress getting envelopes filled with white powder in the mail. Virginia Congressman Suhas Subramanian is one of them. He's here when the final five comes right back. I'm joined now on the final five by Virginia Congressman Saha Subramanian, up late with me tonight here on the show. Sir, thanks for taking time. It's good to see you. Thank you. I want to start first and foremost with the big story that broke yesterday. Your office in Leesburg received a suspicious letter, a suspicious substance in that letter. You're not alone. Many of your other colleagues, including Congressman Vindman, received that, Senator also Brooks. What have you learned so far and what was your reaction? Yeah, it's just a cowardly act. Someone's trying to put a scare in different legislators. We have to respond to this. I'm going to support the investigation to us any way I can. Certainly our staff, we take every precaution we can. That means handling any letters we get with gloves, putting it in a very secure area where nothing can happen. And so, you know, we took all the precautions. We called the hazmat team as soon as we saw the letter and they responded. They did a great job. Thank you to Loudoun County first responders for everything they did. And what does it say, though, just about the political climate that your office, you're wearing gloves, you have to take you have to take these precautions in the first place when you're just trying to field correspondence, presumably from your constituents. That's just the new reality. I mean, I've gotten death threats. We've had people say all sorts of things to us. It's just a new reality. One thing I'm trying to stress is that we have to make sure we keep people in our community safe, especially in a public space like our office where we have constituents come. We want to make sure people aren't scared of visiting our office itself. And so we also want to make sure legislators are safe because I talk to a lot of people that I try to encourage to run for office. And part of the reason they don't want to is because they're worried about their family's safety and their own safety. So we don't want to have good people and not join public service because they're afraid of their safety. Let's talk now about what's happening two weeks from today. Midterm elections are just around the corner here. You're running for reelection. You were first elected two years ago in that 10th district. Affordability has been the buzzword. I know that Democrats have been running on that. the president seems to be thinking that it's some sort of hoax. But the reality is it's a big concern for a lot of people. You're in this unique situation because, yes, you're in the Congress where the White House, Senate and House are all controlled by Republicans in a state, Virginia, where Democrats hold all levers of power. So what's your message to voters? Who really is responsible for the problems we're seeing right now? This election is about broken promises. The president promised he'd put an end to foreign wars. Instead, he started a war of choice in Iran has continued the Ukraine-Russia war with no end in sight. And then he said he's going to lower prices, but he slapped tariffs. He put all these other policies in place that actually raise costs for Americans. I mean, that's the theme here. And what I'm hearing from a lot of voters, even on the Republican side, is that they're fed up with the broken promises of this administration. And Democrats are offering an alternative vision, one that puts the American people first, and a Congress that works for the American people, not for the president. You have not been in Congress in the last couple of weeks. Republicans control the schedule. They've decided to adjourn so everybody can campaign ahead of these midterms because control is certainly in the balance here. But there are certain issues that seem to be more bipartisan than the others. One of them is that Russia sanctions bill that passed a couple of weeks ago in honor of the late Senator Lindsey Graham. President strikes this energy deal with Russia anyway. And then he exempts Russia from a lot of those tariffs. Well, I was critical of that Russia sanctions bill because I didn't think it went far enough. It gave the president too much flexibility. And what's happened is he actually used that flexibility to remove sanctions from Russia instead. Another broken promise. He said he was going to put pressure on Russia and end the Ukraine-Russia war. Instead, he seems like he's trying to help Russia invade Ukraine. And that's his way of ending the war. And that's not what's going to end the war. So again, And if there's Republicans who disagree with his policies, they should actually act upon those disagreements. They should actually stand up to the president, but they've been afraid of doing so. And that's why I think a lot of folks are fed up with congressional Republicans, too. So this is all happening halfway around the world. But in your district, you have confronted something that a lot of places around the country are just now starting to grapple with data center and the rapid expansion. I mean, driving out 66, you see them popping up everywhere. and I know in your district as well. Look, there's been a lot of back and forth about who should pay for the electricity, but there's also the argument that these could be good for the local economy. So how do you strike the balance there? Or do you believe there's one way to go on this? Well, if they're great for the local economy, that's one thing, but we shouldn't have to subsidize their power infrastructure. We shouldn't have to build power lines through homes and schools like we're doing in Loudoun County now to power these data centers. And we should be very transparent about their impact on the community before we sign up for them. And so, you know, Loudoun County can't call us NIMBYs because we have hundreds of them now. But we're at a point now where we have way too many. It's putting too much stress on our grid. We're seeing more power outages in our community. So I put a national plan out to try to see if we can put some guardrails around data center buildouts and make sure that they pay for their own power and that we have all the facts we need when it comes to their impact on the community. Before we go here, early voting, again, is underway. And as you look to make your argument to the voters in your district, and I know for Democrats across Northern Virginia as well, what's the closing message in the last two weeks here? It's simple. We want a Congress that works for the American people, not for Donald Trump. I will continue to be a fighter for our district, whether it's for federal workers and contractors, whether it's a bulwark against the overreach of data center development or whether it's restoring cuts to health care, food assistance programs that support the American people and instead take ending this war in Iran that's taking away tens of billions of dollars of taxpayer money. We need common sense in Congress. And I plan to do that. If Democrats have a majority and you have voted as Democrats have many times and some Republicans on these war powers resolutions, the White House has said they're going to push forward. What changes if the Democrats take the majority in January? It's an illegal war. So we to defund it if they don't come to us and we need to end it with the war powers resolution it's very simple Congressman Sasse, we're on you here on the final five sir thanks again thank you and we're back after this back time for the third block and you know election day is just two weeks away now in fact from today we'll be talking about the results here on Fox 5 and at this point we've seen politicians try just about every strategy you could think of but there are still some surprises out there tonight for example a city council campaign built entirely almost on sarcasm and it worked for more on this let's go to our chief sarcastic political campaign correspondent Loretto Cruz, Loretto it's so good to see you tonight it's good to see you and i know that's kind of a mouthful but i mean you know there are only certain ways that you can really no it was just fine you wrote it perfectly oh thank you thank you well uh this takes us up to Kelowna a place up in British Columbia they have eight city council seats and during an election the top eight candidates by votes received wind up on the city council there were 37 people running this year and a guy named Brady Rogers came in fourth with almost 13,000 votes now what was his winning message quote Brady Rogers for city council misspelling the word council with a tagline quote how hard could it be this was one of the several signs his campaign put up around town in recent weeks and others quote Brady Rogers for city council let's see what happened hey why not Yeah. Another one, quote, Brady Rogers for city council. Fine, I'll do it. And also, quote, Brady Rogers for city council. I'm just trying to pay my rent. That speaks, that speaks real talk. That really does. Another one, quote, Brady Rogers for mayor. Huh. He's, you know, pretty sure of himself now. The tagline there. It's called aspirational. Yeah, aspirational. The tagline there was, he was just kidding. City council, this time with council misspelled differently. Okay. Then he finally spelled city council correctly, despite the new tagline saying, quote, I barely want to do this with a sticker in the corner bragging that he is, quote, under 60. After he learned he won and he would serve on the city council, he said, quote, I think for the most part people saw that the tongue in cheek humor and once my tongue in cheek humor and once they dug into my platform, they recognized that I do actually have some fairly sophisticated ideas. as far as doing the job itself he said quote they'll presumably tell me how to be a councillor but until then it's just me taking it day by day and really isn't that just the most any of us can really do that's really all you can hope for in life sometimes but you got to appreciate the fact the creativity and I can't imagine that he did it completely sarcastically I don't think so like like he said if you go and read his actual platform it was clear he actually had some ideas that he was trying to get in place in that city and uh he asked himself you know do am i really qualified for this he said no but apparently the voters thought otherwise our chief sarcastic correspondent Loretto Cruz here on the Final Five so good to see you Loretto good to see you coming next to the Final Five one more thing to talk about on this Tuesday night imagine if you will you're 12 years old you've gone hungry you've lived in a tent and your stepfather is accused of raping you he's arrested and indicted you're removed from the home but your mother chooses to stay with him through the years though you pick yourself up go to school become a doctor the top health official in Ohio, then run for governor only to see that same estranged mother who put her own abuser ahead of you in a campaign ad for your rival calling you a liar. That is the story of Amy Acton. She's the Democratic nominee for governor in Ohio. And here's the thing. Court records corroborate key parts of her story. Her brother stands behind her as well. Even the conservative National Review examined the ad. So ask yourself, when did a child's abuse become political fodder? That is a question for Vivek Ramaswamy, the hedge fund millionaire and former Republican presidential candidate's campaign is down in the polls. It made that ad, and according to Axios, it's spending $4 million to put it on the air. The bet, apparently, is that it works, and maybe that's the most depressing part of it all, because we constantly ask why Americans don't trust politics, why they think it's cruel and calculated and about winning at any cost. But in the end, maybe voters didn't become cynical about politics. Maybe politics and politicians and wannabe politicians just keep proving their cynicism right. That's your final five. We're back at it again tomorrow at 11.30. The morning crew is here at 4 a.m. Have a great night. Go to bed. 47 years into a conflict with Iran to prevent that power from getting nuclear weapons. A nuclear-armed Iranian regime is not just a threat to the Middle East. It's a threat to the world. It's a threat to your children and to your grandchildren. It is an absolutely unacceptable outcome. And that bold leadership to prevent Iran from getting a nuclear weapon has absolutely impacted energy markets, and that's the trade-off of what we're doing. But if you look at before the conflict started, gasoline prices were down, heating prices were down, electricity prices were down. I'll mention today the largest source of primary energy in the United States today, natural gas, has just passed oil as our largest source of primary energy. Natural gas prices throughout the United States are no higher today than they were before the conflict. Oil prices and refined product prices, unfortunately, are higher. We have all sorts of efforts on that. One of it is shipping, right? Just to move products around because of the multiple conflicts, the Russia-Ukraine war and the Middle East conflict, shipping prices are up. So we're working to how can we transition fleets that were bad guys used to deliver sanctioned oil? How can we get those same ships into the hands of legitimate shippers to move legitimate oil and oil products around the world to lower shipping costs? We're working with our allies in India to increase their refinery output so they can bring more products to the marketplace. We're working with our allies in Europe.