A rally speech by Vice President JD Vance came in for a line-by-line dismantling on the Friday, August 21, 2026, edition of “The Five,” where Fox News co-host Jessica Tarlov spent several minutes disputing his claims about homeownership, President Donald Trump’s record and the “fraudsters and criminals” label he pinned on the Democratic Party.
Vance had told supporters earlier that day, in his hometown of Middletown, Ohio, that the housing market was beginning to turn a corner for the next generation. “We got a lot of work to do, but we’re finally seeing that American dream of homeownership become accessible again to our young people,” Vance declared. The November elections, he argued, would turn on whether Washington works for families and children instead of fraudsters and criminals, and whether the president puts Americans first.
The panel had been chewing over a progressive shift within the Democratic Party when Tarlov — the show’s liberal voice along with Harold Ford Jr. — turned to the vice president’s talking points, starting with housing.
“The average age of homeownership just hit 40 years old in this country,” Tarlov said. “Mortgage rates are up. Construction is down.” She traced the slowdown directly to the war in Iran.
A War, a Strait and Shipping Costs
That war began on February 28, started by the United States and Israel, and Tehran hit back by closing the Strait of Hormuz — the waterway that carries a fifth of the world’s oil. Fuel prices climbed, and that increase has reportedly driven up what it costs to haul construction materials, a burden that eventually reaches homebuyers.
Polling has consistently marked the economy as the president’s softest ground. In a CNN-SSRS survey released last month, 66 percent of U.S. adults disapproved of Trump’s job performance overall and 70 percent disapproved of his handling of the economy.
Tarlov brought those numbers to air, telling her co-hosts that 70 percent of Americans believe Trump is not focused on lowering costs and does not care about people like them, and that 70 percent think his business interests drive his political decisions. Trump has amassed $2.2 billion, she said, adding: “JD Vance is describing his own government — the fraudsters and the criminals — and Americans will vote based on that.”
The $2.2 Billion Disclosure
Behind that figure is a 927-page financial disclosure form released in June. It revealed Trump earned over $1 billion from cryptocurrency ventures last year, with nearly $600 million of that coming from World Liberty Financial, a crypto firm co-founded by him and his sons. Income listed in the filing came to at least $2.2 billion.
Her fraud claims drew a reply from co-host Greg Gutfeld, who praised the now-defunct Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) as a cost-cutting effort created to root out waste in public spending. The bigger part of DOGE’s reputation, though, rests on deep cuts at federal agencies, the Department of Education among them.
The Loneliest Seat in Cable News
An episode of “The New Yorker Radio Hour” released August 21 found Tarlov describing that same dynamic at length. Talking with host David Remnick, she said she makes the liberal case to an audience that is largely unsympathetic to it, and added that liberal viewers frequently misjudge her conservative colleagues. Her presence on the panel has annoyed Trump, who has called on Fox News to fire her.
No program on cable news draws more viewers than “The Five,” where Tarlov shares the liberal chair with former Rep. Harold Ford Jr. opposite conservative co-hosts Dana Perino, Gutfeld and Jesse Watters. That daily experience supplied most of the material for her new book, “I Disagree: Winning Arguments Without Losing Friends.” The podcast is a co-production of WNYC and The New Yorker, with new episodes on Tuesdays and Fridays.
Fox News has named Emily Compagno the newest permanent co-host of the show, with her official start date set for September 8; she joined the panel ahead of that date. Fox News CEO Suzanne Scott said in a statement: “Fifteen years later, The Five remains a powerhouse and appointment viewing for millions of Americans. Emily is a highly accomplished host whose energy and talent have made her a standout across FOX News Media, and we are thrilled to officially welcome her to the show.”
Compagno’s arrival set off speculation online that she was replacing Tarlov. “Why didn’t Jessica show up today? Is she mad about being replaced?” one commenter asked. Another wrote, “I see someone new on the show! Does that mean Fox News has had it with Jessica and kicked her off the show?” Tarlov is 42.
How She Landed on the Panel
Her co-hosting run started in 2021, when she began rotating through the seat with Ford and veteran journalist Geraldo Rivera. The trio took over from Juan Williams, the show’s longtime liberal voice, who remained a political analyst for the network.
A profile dated September 29, 2022, put the roundtable’s daily audience at an average of 3.4 million viewers, the largest in cable news, with viewership up 21 percent over the prior year. Interviewed at the network’s Manhattan headquarters, Tarlov, then 38, said large conservative accounts on Twitter had started engaging with her arguments as part of the debate rather than attacking her appearance — a shift she called both important and preferable. The program, which launched in 2011, was described then as the last cable roundtable still built around genuine ideological conflict, and the right-leaning regulars she faced included Jeanine Pirro, Perino, Gutfeld and Watters.
Tarlov did not appear on the August 24 edition of “The Five,” and Dana Perino left her out when she introduced the panel at the top of that show. The lineup that day was Perino, Emily Compagno, Kennedy, Jesse Watters and Greg Gutfeld. Tarlov has made no announcement about leaving the show.
Four years on, the job description has barely shifted: one liberal seat surrounded by conservatives, and a live rebuttal of the sitting vice president delivered to the biggest audience in cable news.
