The Final 5: November 11, 2026

It's as creative as a child if you let yourself be. A new study out of Austria found adults came up with more original and effective ideas than preschoolers. But the kids have the confidence. Researchers say children were more enthusiastic, motivated, and less afraid of getting things wrong. The takeaway for parents, give kids room to imagine, experiment, and play without the pressure of being perfect. Let's get to a guy who's creative, confident, and gosh darn it, people like him too. Here's the final five with Jim Locke. A smart man. Washes his hands after he urinates. A wise man doesn't urinate on his hands. We need to stop urinating on our hands. Hey, this is the final five. Let's do this. Hey, welcome to the Final Five on this Wednesday night. Where would this show be without John Kennedy? We'll talk about that coming up in a little bit. But first, we need to start with what today is. This is Veterans Day. It is a day devoted to honoring the men and women of our country who have served and defended our freedoms, as well as those who continue to do so every day, which means, by default, you would imagine that makes it a big day for Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. As the Secretary of Defense, every single member of our armed forces technically answers to him. Today, he was with his wife and staffers at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at Arlington National Cemetery, a hallowed place meant to honor unidentified fallen American service members who gave their life for the country. If you've ever been there, you know silence is of the utmost importance. But today, the Tomb's guard, the Sentinel, had to remind Hegseth of just that. Yeah, the Sentinel reprimanded Hegseth and his group after they posed and laughed for pictures. But the Pentagon's chief spokesperson defended the soldier, saying he respectfully reminded everybody to maintain decorum. You would think the Secretary of Defense would have gotten a nice briefing prior to it, a reminder that you have to be somber and show yourself to be there in a mode of respect. So I think it's very embarrassing for him. And at the same time, I'm very proud of the fact. That our country held those rules, even in the face of putting somebody like the Secretary of Defense there. It really is something to be proud of. And just a point of privilege here, because I was 13 years old in 1994 when I had the honor to lay a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknowns as part of a school group. And you can bet that every teacher, every adult in the room there, everybody at Arlington reminded us of the solemnity of the moment. Unfortunately. Nobody did that for Hegseth's party today. Now, just yesterday, he survived an impeachment attempt in the House with House Republicans voting to table the idea indefinitely. And by the way, there were 11 Democrats who didn't show up to vote for that. They had their own excuses. But the Republican-led push accused Hegseth of breaking the law by continuing the war in Iran, stifling free speech at the Pentagon, and kidnapping a foreign leader, Nicholas Maduro. But some Democrats say impeaching Hegseth doesn't go far enough. The end is not just to have him removed from office. It's not to have other cabinet members removed from office. The end is to make sure that the Constitution is honored and that a president who has committed impeachable offenses is impeached and removed from office. That's where we're headed. Al Green, seen there shaking his cane at President Trump during a joint address to Congress last year, will not be taking part in impeaching anybody at this point because he lost his primary and will not return to take part in the new Democratic House majority. Democratic leadership has not explicitly promised another impeachment push for President Trump or other cabinet secretaries, but many of them have not ruled it out. We need to understand at this moment that what happened on the election, the American public were very clear they wanted to focus on affordability. And they want us to focus on accountability. And corruption is directly tied back to why people's gas and groceries are so expensive. And at this moment, Donald Trump does not want to take responsibility for the corruption that is happening all across the government. So if there's anybody whose job it is to oversee things like impeachment articles or congressional investigations, it is that guy you just heard from, California Democratic Congressman Robert Garcia. He is expected to rise to power as chairman of the powerful House Oversight Committee. And it sounds like he has some pretty big plans along the way. Shortly after it became clear Democrats won the House last week, he said simply, quote, lawyer up. He's discussed a range of possible investigations, including the Epstein files, the insider trading. Other Democrats have followed suit with Congresswoman Analida Mejia of New Jersey, saying, quote, we're going to toss out subpoenas like Mardi Gras beads. The White House doesn't seem to be too fond of the smack talk. In a strongly worded letter, White House counsel Will Scharf said, quote, we are monitoring the abusive and capricious threats that are now proliferating from Democratic legislators who seek to abuse the legislative process. The letter goes on to suggest the behavior, quote, may cross the line into blatant criminality and then threaten investigations of their own. For Congress to investigate, they can't investigate for the purpose of, you know, inflicting pain on governmental officials. They can't investigate things for their own self-aggrandizement. These are blatantly inappropriate uses of Congress's power. Now, the White House didn't specify if they were also examining the actions of the current House Oversight Committee, chaired by Kentucky Republican Congressman James Comer. Their investigations have focused on people like former President Bill Clinton and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Trump's former FBI Director James Comey, and a wide range of other people who have been critical of President Trump. Broadly, Democrats accused that committee of acting politically. Many of them have dismissed the White House's new threats. What do you do about that? Come at me, bro. You know, I just think we are so well situated to do our jobs. What they're saying is don't do your jobs. Don't do oversight. Don't check on the administration of the government. Obviously, we pass laws and the president habitually violates those laws. Man, Stephen Lynch getting all salty on him there. Let's talk more about the road ahead for Democrats and priorities for progressives that want to see some change in the party now that they will have the power. Adam Mokler of Midas Touch is back up late with me tonight here live on the Final Five. Adams, it's been some time. The last time I saw you on TV, you were handing it to Scott Jennings, but that's another story for another day. It's good to see you tonight. Thank you for having me, Jim. I'm excited to have this conversation. And I mean, it's pretty clear which party is winning at this point. I want to get your sense, though, of where things go from here, because every time when you have the power, when you have the gavel, there is still a power struggle as to where you go. Is it about investigations? Is it about affordability? There seem to be the question is, can Democrats thread the needle on both of those? Because that seems to be the two priorities. I think that the two go hand in hand, and I know that's trite and everybody is saying that. But at this very moment, if Democrats can have a unique surgical focus on single issue bill after single issue bill, not big, broad omnibus bills that are confusing, but clear bills like banning gerrymandering. or banning money out of politics, or at least attempting to pass single-issue bills that can get these issues on the record, I think the American people will see that we are trying to rewire a broken system away from special interest groups, lobbyists, and the people who want to distort the incentives of politicians. So while we focus on affordability and while we investigate the corruption, I think you'll see the two go hand in hand very cleanly. Of course, it all comes down as well to who's going to guide the messaging. And that comes down to the leadership right now. They have yet to vote on who will lead the caucuses in the House and Senate. Hakeem Jeffries would love to be speaker. Chuck Schumer would love to be majority leader. It doesn't seem to be the same fervor against Hakeem Jeffries as there is for Chuck Schumer, where you have the likes of Bernie Sanders and Alyssa Slotkin coming out and saying maybe it's time for a new leader. Is it time for a new leader for the Democrats in the Senate? The reality is this was a midterm of generational change. And while the House seems like a foregone conclusion, you have everybody from AOC, Ro Khanna, even Zohran Mamdani saying Jeffries is going to be the person who's speaker. I think the Senate is still an open field. Chris Van Hollen has flirted with the idea of running against Chuck Schumer, but it's not an enviable position. You are going to very quickly become unpopular as the speaker. So, I mean, yeah, at the end of the day If we have the same leaders in charge of the same party after voters voted for generational change, and if those leaders are missing votes, or at least allowing votes to be missed, people are going to be angry. It still is going to be seen whether or not Chuck Schumer wins. I think that right now, if he's running unopposed, then yeah, I mean, there's nobody running against him. He's the only one running. You mentioned about missing votes yesterday. There was that vote in the House to impeach Pete Hegseth. There were a number of Republicans who didn't show up, but 11 Democrats didn't show. There were some like Melanie Stansbury of New Mexico who had said, hey, there was there was traffic getting from the Capitol after some event on Capitol Hill. But the reality is they don't have the majority. We know that they don't have a majority yet. But is that a lapse in leadership, not being able to get your members for this vote that they've been They've been waiting for for some time. It is absolutely a lapse in leadership. And listen, there are procedural nuances. Yes, this was a procedural vote, and Democrats will have more expanded authority to run investigations in January. Those arguments are valid. But when Hakeem Jeffries is already being questioned as a leader, if I were him, I would do every possible thing I can to make sure every single person in my caucus was there voting, even if it is a symbolic vote and the real vote happens in a few months. So it is a lapse in leadership. We can't be making traffic excuses one week after the American people elected us to show up. What do you want to see day one when they get that gavel back? What should be is there is there a signature piece of legislation that they should be working on now to prepare for day one, even though they know whatever it might be might might meet the buzzsaw of the president's veto pen? Yeah, I hinted this earlier, but it's not a signature legislation. It's single issue bills. Ban gerrymandering federally, force that on the table, increase health care access for Americans, raise the minimum wage federally, ban congressional stock trading, ban stock trading within the executive branch. And if we can pass these bills, we help the American people. If Republicans want to stand in the way, then we're just showing voters the list of pending bills for the Democratic president in January of 2029. So it's time to be aggressive, push clear bills, communicate clearly, do a media blitz, and focus on affordability. Adam, right before we go here, the big news today has been Mississippi. That Senate seat will go to Scott Colome with Democrats making gains in Mississippi, Iowa, Kansas, Texas. What's what's the lesson there? What should be the message for those next two years before the next time we vote for House and Senate? The term that has been floating around is supermajority thinking. The Democratic Party, any political party can build a supermajority if you have a dynamic, diverse set of players in different areas. Scott Colome can win in Mississippi. Zoran Mamdani can become the mayor in New York. He may not play as well in Texas, but we have Tallarico there. We have John Ossoff in Georgia. The point is, we have dynamic, flexible players in different states running We're running on platforms and I think that is super majority thinking. Adam Munkler joining us here on the Final Five. Adam, always appreciate it. Good to see you again. Thank you, Jim. And we are after this. After this on the Final Five, Congressman Glenn Ivey joining me. And I'm joined down by Maryland Congressman Glenn Ivey up late with me tonight here on the Final Five. Hey, sir, it's good to see you again. We appreciate it. Thanks for having me on. So much has happened in the last week. I don't know if we're gonna have enough time to get to everything, but I wanna start back on Tuesday. You will be part of a House majority for the first time. And obviously, when you look at the level of victories in the places across the country where Democrats weren't expected to perform well and they overperformed, what was the winning message for your party? Well, I think it was affordability and accountability. The affordability piece, I think people were just really struggling to keep their heads above water, gas in the tank, food on the table, roof over their heads sort of things. And Trump was doing exactly the opposite of what he said he would do, which is to try and deal with those issues, bring down inflation and the like. He put in policies that were doing the opposite. And the war led to the high gas prices This is because of the... The Strait of Hormuz issue, His tariffs pushed up grocery prices and other items like cars and the like. And cuts to healthcare and Medicaid and the like, I think really hurt people on that front too. So he was really making people's lives much worse, especially from an economic standpoint. I think they sent a resounding message to all of us here in Washington that they want a change in course. It doesn't sound like the President is paying attention to that, but here on Capitol Hill, House Democrats and Senate Democrats definitely are. One of the big headlines the next morning, incoming House Oversight Chair. Robert Garcia putting out a post that said basically lawyer up to people in the administration, people in the Trump orbit. Today, we learned White House legal counsel Will Scharf sends this letter to Garcia suggesting that could be tantamount to a threat. And it seems like there's gonna be this legal back and forth. Your reaction, I know the House, just as Republicans did when Joe Biden was in office, there is a level of oversight that if you have the majority, you were able to control certain levers of government here. Yeah, for more than a century, the Supreme Court has said that Congress has very expansive oversight authority if it's connected to any kind of legislative functions. Clearly, that's the case here. And so the White House counsel, I chuckled actually when I read parts of that letter, he doesn't have a leg to stand on. And interestingly enough, The Republicans who currently control Judiciary Committee and others, we're doing the same kind of oversight with respect to the Biden administration just a couple of years ago. And obviously, Republicans didn't complain about that. Because as I said, Congress clearly has the authority to do this. And I gotta say too, if there's an administration ever that needs oversight, it's the Trump administration. He's roughly getting towards $3 billion personally wealthier than he was two years ago. And you have these. Scenarios where, you know, they get a $2 million donation and all of a sudden somebody related to the donor gets pardoned. Obviously, we've got to take a look at that kind of stuff. The $440 million jet and wasting money on things like, what was it, 60 million for the cage fight on the front lawn of the White House and 15 million on the reflecting pool. It just goes on and on and on. But it's critical for us to take a look at that and make sure that people should be held accountable for that, whether it's personal liability or criminal liability or whatever, that we're making sure we get the We've got the oversight done. And people are held accountable for the actions they've taken. Okay, one of the big issues in your district in Maryland, Prince George's County has been the FBI headquarters, something that President Trump had put the kibosh on. There was that move to build the FBI facility in Greenbelt. Then the Trump administration comes in and says, no, it's gonna stay in DC, we're gonna move it to the Reagan building. That's currently held up in. In legislation held up in court rather. So what's the move here for yourself and your fellow Democratic senators? I mean, is there a possibility this goes back to Greenbelt or what is it gonna take to get from where it is now to where you'd like to see it go? Yeah, I think it should be moving forward with respect to Greenbelt because the court case essentially said that the Trump administration's effort to block the move to Greenbelt so it could go to Washington was not gonna be legal. So they essentially struck that down. So everything should go back to where it was. The GSA had, I think it was like a 15 year process where we went through all of the merits of Other potential sites and the like, Greenbelt was selected because it was the best one, especially on cost grounds. I think it was $300 million less expensive just to get started than the next closest alternative site. It's ready to go. It's next to a metro. You can build the type of campus facility that gives you the type of national security that you'd need for an installation like that, which you can't do in D.C. That was one of the big problems there. Everything's ready to go. Let's move forward with it. He is Congressman Glenn Ivey. Sir, thanks again for taking time. Thanks for having me. I appreciate it. We're back after this. Welcome back to the Final Five. Time now for the third block, and we start with the person who prioritizes Pokemon cards so much. Of course, he's tonight's dumb criminal. This one takes us down to Charleston, South Carolina, where a man named John Michael Dooley was dead set on getting some exclusive new Pokemon cards. Around 1 a.m., he was standing in line with his 6-year-old daughter outside of Target, waiting for the store to open. Now, if the story stopped there, it would be almost heartwarming. Think about it. Dad spends quality time with daughter, supports her love of Pokemon. But the story did not stop there, because sometime after 1 a.m., police say he, quote, gave his daughter a pillow and blanket, then left her asleep in line so she could keep his place in line, and so he would avoid missing out on buying the new cars. As far as where he went, he admitted to investigators he had returned home. Police arrested him and put the girl in the care of the state. She was unharmed, but as far as police goes, they caught them all. Meantime, things aren't looking good tonight for the former Republican lieutenant governor of North Carolina, Mark Robinson. Yeah, he was a big name in politics about two years ago when he became the Republican nominee to be North Carolina's governor. He lost the race for many reasons, but one of them pretty embarrassing, porn. CNN published details on his online persona, which included frequent posts and comments on porn websites. The posts include Robinson calling himself a, quote, black Nazi, defending slavery, saying he liked watching transgender porn, adding, quote, that's effing hot, and calling himself a perv. Now Robinson is declaring himself something else, bankrupt. New filings show he and his wife are reporting they have less than $800 in cash to their names and more than $800,000 in debt. But money isn't his only lingering problem, porn is too. Right now he's being sued by a musician who wrote a song about him which claimed Robinson owed him money for a bootleg porn DVD he bought back in the early 2000s. Robinson initially sued the music for defamation, but later dropped the claim. Coming up next, wow, great music choice. Up next, the final five, a story of political redemption and revenge out of Mississippi. Back after this. You know that saying, be nice to people on the way up because you never know when you'll run into them on the way down? Thus brings us to this evening. Scott Colombe wanted to be a federal judge. President Biden nominated the Mississippi prosecutor in 2022, and the state's Republican senator, at least one of them, Roger Wicker, supported him. The other Republican senator blocked his path to the bench, claiming he was funded by billionaire George Soros. So Colombe decided he would run for her seat. And tonight, he won, becoming Mississippi's first black senator since Reconstruction. She could stop his nomination. She couldn't stop the voters. And the senator who kept him from getting a new job just lost hers, Cindy Hyde-Smith. But it's not just spite that brought her down. There's also Hyde-Smith's Marie Antoinette moment. On a local TV interview asked about high beef prices, she said people should just, quote, pick another protein. So Cologne turned that into an ad saying, quote, pick another protein. I'd rather pick another senator. And guess what? They did. One ad doesn't explain an entire election, but telling people change their dinner instead of addressing why their grocery bills are so damn high made her look painfully out of touch in Mississippi. Her answer was another protein. Theirs was another senator. By the way, she conceded tonight after saying that she would fight through the process, but it is over and done with, and the Democrats add another win in their column. That's your Final Five. We thank you so much for watching. Final Five is off tomorrow night. We'll be back on Friday with Sidney Persing. Thank you so much for watching. Have a great night. Go to bed. But it's only me and I walk alone.