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Election Day In America - The Five | Wave AI Podcast Notes

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Election Day In America

The Five

Wed Nov 05 2025

The Five 11-04-2025

Summary

The Five – "Election Day In America" (November 5, 2025)

Episode Overview

This Election Day special of The Five dives into the high-stakes gubernatorial races in New Jersey and Virginia, and the dramatically polarized mayoral contest in New York City. The panel—Dana Perino, Kayleigh McEnany, Harold Ford Jr., Jesse Watters, and Greg Gutfeld—debate the national significance of these races, the ideological realignment within both parties, and the social, economic, and political flashpoints electrifying the 2025 elections. Key stories include the rise of Democratic Socialist Zoran Mamdani, Trump's surprising Cuomo endorsement, the state of American cities, and partisan attacks from figures like Nancy Pelosi.

Key Discussion Points and Insights

1. The New York City Mayoral Showdown

The Candidates: Democratic Socialist Zoran Mamdani, former Governor Andrew Cuomo (D), and Republican Curtis Sliwa compete for the mayoral seat.
Trump's Role: President Trump endorses Cuomo, threatening fund cuts if Mamdani wins, signaling a direct Republican strategy to paint Mamdani as a "face of Democratic socialism."
Concern Over Socialism: Kayleigh McEnany criticizes Mamdani’s promises of "free stuff," pointing out the financial strain and exodus of high-income taxpayers from the city ([03:00]):

“You are promising free stuff… it sounds harsh, lying to your voters who are not going to wake up tomorrow with free child care, city run grocery stores and the like.” – Kayleigh McEnany [03:16]
Panel Response: Harold Ford Jr. acknowledges Mamdani’s appeal but positions him as a symptom rather than the center of Democratic identity ([04:37]):

“Mondami won't be the face of the Democratic Party… he has touched on the issue that… has animated this race not only in New York, but all across the country.” – Harold Ford Jr. [05:28]
Greg Gutfeld’s Perspective: Frames Mamdani’s rise as a "hangover of wokeism," suggesting he is more a repercussion of movement excess than a herald of the party's future ([10:46]):

“Zoran may be not a harbinger of the future, but a result of the past… like the tail at the comet of wokeism.” – Greg Gutfeld [10:46]

2. National Consequences of State Elections

Local Races, National Stakes: The panel describes the Virginia and New Jersey elections as bellwethers for both parties, particularly in the context of shifting demographics after COVID.
Recurring Themes: McEnany identifies issues like parental rights, "woke" ideology, and economic anxiety as animators for both past Trump victories and today's races ([02:16]):

“Parents having rights in schools... animated the election that won Donald Trump the White House.” – Kayleigh McEnany [02:16]

3. Polarization and Vitriol: The Pelosi Segment

Nancy Pelosi Goes "Beast Mode": Pelosi calls Trump "the worst thing on the face of the earth," prompting reactions from the panel ([16:35-16:56]).
Panel Rebuke: McEnany calls Pelosi’s statement “asinine,” comparing it to geopolitical atrocities and highlighting hyperbolic rhetoric ([21:13]):

“Worst person on planet earth, really. Worse than Hamas, who killed children. Worse than Putin, who abducted children...” – Kayleigh McEnany [21:13]
Harold’s Call for Civility: Advocates for passionate disagreement but condemns personal hatred ([22:16]):

“You can have rabid and massive disagreements… that doesn't mean that you have to hold hate in your heart for someone.” – Harold Ford Jr. [22:16]

4. Economic Anxiety and Everyday Politics

Quality of Life Campaigns: In New Jersey, taxes and household economics dominate, with plastic bags becoming a surprising symbol ([27:36]):

“At the supermarket you can have back your plastic bags.” – Jack Cittarelli (quoted by Kayleigh McEnany at [27:36])
Panel Humor and Frustration: Dana connects plastic bag debate to “politically correct” overreach, while Gutfeld and Jesse lament the lack of bold energy policy, mocking candidates with frivolous names ([30:10], [30:16]).

5. Energy and Climate Policy Debates

Republican Pushback: Gutfeld rails against “fraudulent climate agenda” and advocates for nuclear energy innovation, criticizing both parties for past neglect ([30:28]):

“The country with the most energy wins. And this stuff is going to be really expensive until we start embracing nuclear, which we have basically shunned for decades because we were lied to.” – Greg Gutfeld [31:28]

6. Political Violence and Candidate Controversy in Virginia

Jay Jones Scandal: Virginia AG candidate Jay Jones faces heat for violent, explicit texts about murdering a Republican colleague.
Panel Disgust: McEnany and Gutfeld highlight the moral and political hypocrisy, noting a lack of Democratic calls for his withdrawal ([36:14]):

“Jay Jones should have been forced out of the race. Abigail Spamberger could have put a stop to it.” – Dana Perino [34:04] “He threatened to murder a family. In any arena, think about this, you would not hire him… yet you would have him as attorney General.” – Greg Gutfeld [35:12]

7. Realignment, Apathetic Electorate, and Final Poll Numbers

Voter Priorities: Fox polling shows economy remains the top issue in both Virginia (49%) and New Jersey (taxes, 34%), with Trump less of a direct factor ([38:33-40:20]).
Panel Reflection: Repeated critiques of candidates who define themselves by opposition rather than positive policy, and speculation on the future directions of both parties.

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

On the Choices Facing Voters:

“We're being told we have to vote for a guy who killed our grandparents so the other guy doesn't win and kill their grandchildren. This is like saying to a guy on death row, how do you want to die?” – Jesse Watters [07:57]
On Left-Wing Candidates:

“He is a 34-year-old with no experience. He's like slotted into a role like an actor chosen for a part.” – Greg Gutfeld [12:11]
On Nancy Pelosi's Outburst:

“She has got spurs on her tongue because she's got a sharp one…” – Dana Perino [17:14]
On Morality in Politics:

“Put aside the economy, crime, everything, that's morality issues.” – Kayleigh McEnany [36:14]

Timestamps for Important Segments

| Segment | Start Time | |----------------------------------------------|-------------| | NYC Mayoral and National Ramifications | 00:53 | | McEnany on Welfare and Tax Flight | 03:00 | | Ford on Mamdani's Role/Party Realignment | 04:37 | | Gutfeld: Mamdani as Woke “Hangover” | 10:46 | | The Panel on Pelosi's Trump Attacks | 16:35 | | McEnany Rebukes Pelosi, Ford Calls for Civility | 21:13 | | NJ/VA Governors, Plastic Bags as a Symbol | 27:36 | | Gutfeld on Energy Policy & Nuclear | 30:28 | | Political Violence: Jay Jones Scandal | 34:04 | | Fox Voter Poll Results and Panel Analysis | 38:33 |

Final Thoughts

The episode captures Election Day’s feverish blend of high drama, deep polarization, and everyday anxieties. Panelists oscillate between caustic humor and genuine worry about the direction of America’s cities and parties. Through spirited debate, pointed zingers, and a parade of memorable soundbites, The Five distills the turbulent mood of 2025: a tense crossroads for public policy, party identity, and American civic life.

For more detailed coverage, see the referenced timestamps for in-depth discussion of each major segment.

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Transcript

A (0:05)

Hello, everyone.

B (0:05)

I'm Dana Perino along with Kayleigh McEnany, Harold Ford Jr. Jesse Waters, and Greg Gutfeld. It's five o' clock in New York City and this is the five. So we are just two hours away from the first polls closing on election Day. New Jersey and Virginia are electing governors. New York City is choosing a mayor. And that race could forever alter the course of the Democratic Party. Democratic socialist Zo run Mamdani, former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo and Republican Curtis Sliwa duking it out for who leads the Big Apple. President Trump weighing in by endorsing Andrew Cuomo and threatening to cut funds if Communist Zoran Mamdani wins the mayor's race. Here's what the candidates are saying.

A (0:53)

Endorsements that Andrew Cuomo has got. We're talking about Donald Trump, Elon Musk and Stephen Miller. These are the architects in many ways of the crisis of authoritarianism that New Yorkers are facing.

C (1:04)

And Andrew Cuomo is so unwilling. President Trump is pragmatic.

A (1:07)

He is telling them the reality of the situation, which is if you do not vote, Mamdame is going to win.

C (1:16)

Who is Mamdami? I don't know, but he's a Democratic socialist. He'll bring socialism to New York City.

A (1:22)

New York City will not thrive with a socialist economy. Cuomo needs to go back, hide under.

C (1:29)

His rock out in the Hamptons with his billionaire friends who have left really, a sten over the city of New York.

B (1:38)

Some top Democrats are fawning over Mamdani's campaign. Barack Obama was offering to be a sounding board, others not so sure.

D (1:47)

Do you see Mamdani as the future.

A (1:49)

Of the Democratic Party? No, I think the future of the Democratic Party is going to fall, as far as we're concerned, relative to the House Democratic caucus members who are doing a great work all across the country.

B (2:06)

Kayleigh, let me turn it over to you and just set the picture for us because these are races that are local and state elections, but I think that they have bigger consequence for the country going forward.

E (2:16)

Without a doubt. I mean, you think back to 2021 and you think about this huge victory by Glenn Youngkin, and then you also think about how close Jack Cittarelli came. And the animating themes of those elections were, were transgenderism was one of them. The woke agenda was another. Parents having rights in schools. And, oh, wait, if those sound familiar, they should because they animated the election that won Donald Trump the White House. But we knew these themes were percolating up four years ago, four years prior to that moment because of a night like tonight. So we will see themes in Virginia where it looks like the Democrat has the advantage, in New Jersey where these are the more moderate candidates. And when Jessica Tarlov is back, I'm sure she'll say this is proof that moderates win and that's the message of the Democratic Party. But we can't lose sight of Zoran Mamdani, a Democratic Socialist who is poised potentially to take over New York City. Let me just say this about Zoran Mamdani. He's selling voters a basket of lies. And there are two facts that I found today that I think are very important. One, the state that spends the most on welfare and education combined is New York City. No state spends more than New York state on those two items. In fact, they spend 72% more than Texas on that, 130% more than more than Florida. Zoran wants free childcare that would cost, let's see, 6 billion a year. He wants free buses. He wants city owned grocery stores. So you already have the biggest welfare state and you want to pour more into the welfare state at the same time. Fact number two, millionaires are leaving. There's been a 2% decline in millionaires. If you look at that $10 million and above bracket that you really need to fund the programs, 10% have fleed over a four year period. So your taxpayers are dwindling. You are promising free stuff and you are, I hate to say it, it sounds harsh, lying to your voters who are not going to wake up tomorrow with free child care, city run grocery stores and the like. And it's really quite awful what he's doing. But it's going to be a wake up call for the nation. When you contrast a robust Trump economy that I believe is on the horizon.

C (10:46)

Zoran may be not a harbinger of the future, but a result of the past. Like, like he's like the, the tail at the comet of wokeism. After a decade of punitive terrible ideas, the beast that was created a torrent of bad ideas of this is the hangover, this is the bottom. So this is the way I'm trying to tell myself things won't be so bad is that he's the end of something and not the beginning of something. When you, when you put it down on paper, it's so improbable that it has to be orchestrated. I'm sorry, I'm not a conspiracist. You have a hard left. Hard left socialist with no managerial background. 34 years old, hatred for capitalism and Jews. Said cops were a threat to public safety. Said he was going to target white neighborhoods. What does that sound like to you? It sounds like an antifa Twitter feed of the last 10 years but now harnessed with a publicist and millions of dollars in the bank. I never heard from Zoran why he wants to be mayor. Never heard that. Imagine I'm thinking of myself as a 34 year old living in New York or Jesse, we have a career we want. We don't just. We don't think for a minute that we could be mayor of the world's greatest city. He didn't think he would be. Someone else did. So he, it feels to me, I mean, he has no connection to this city in my mind. It's not like. It's not like any of the previous mayors who just. They just are synonymous with New York City. He's synonymous with the quad at Columbia, if that. He's a 34 year old with no experience. He's like slotted into a role like an actor chosen for a part. And he was chosen because he had no backstory, even the backstory that they find now. It's the stuff that he said recently, but he's yet to come up with a passionate reason why for doing this. He will tell. If you ask him, like, what. What do you love about New York City? What do you think he'll say? The diversity. He might say the people, the energy, the life. And it's like none of those things are what make New York great. Those are. That's the. The result of the things that make New York great. He has no system for creating that. He might say he loves diversity. What is his idea for diversity? Is that pumping in another million illegals? No, you have a system, an industry made from hard work, a tax base, all of these people. It's the irony that you need a rigid, well thought out system to give the appearance of a free and loose city. You need for that freedom to be protected. But if you do the reverse and you have this chaotic buffet of, you know, cashless bail, sanctuary cities, free everything, it's going to be a mess. And then what happens when it's a mess? You get that, you get the reverse, which is a crackdown. If these people want, you know, National Guard on their streets, you can sure as hell get there faster with Mandani, because it's going to be chaos.

B (17:14)

Maybe somebody who's thinking about hanging up her spurs. She wears spurs. I think she has got spurs on her tongue because she's got a sharp one. I mentioned yesterday you weren't here for this. Brilliant point. I'll say it again. Trump is the only thing holding both parties together at the moment. And for the Democrats, it's certainly at their peril because they're about to have this big intramural fight about who can be in the tent. And is Zoran Mamdani a socialist who can be in the tent, who is the leader of New York City and basically the leader of the party with all the energy? Because he certainly thinks he is. And the media is going to give him that opportunity. And he doesn't even really need the media. He talks directly to the young people. And so you're going to see this in Minnesota, going to see it in Seattle and other places that I can't even think of right now where you have very far left progressives who might not be called Democratic socialists, but look at their programs. That's what they are. I was surprised on this point about Abigail Spamberger. You know, Abigail Spamberger and Mikey Sheryl, these are the two gubernatorial candidates in Virginia and New Jersey. They were elected as independents. Okay. When they were recruited by Pelosi, these were the ones that could win in a swing district. They won. Then they were the ones who joined the Problem Solvers Caucus. Those are the people that are supposed to be able to be civil. Spamberger says she has no interest in working with Trump. So she's going to be the governor of a state that's 15 minutes away from the Oval Office. And she doesn't think it's important to have at least a relationship with him, like maybe to help get the shutdown. And if you think about the mayor of D.C. muriel Bowser, she said, okay, let me just work with him. What are the changes? You just got back from there and by all accounts, it's better in terms of it's beautiful. And you have to wonder, what is it that they stand for? Cheryl and Burger, I think I was going to say Stanberg, Micah, Sheryl and Abigail, they have not said what they are for. We absolutely know what they are against. Spamberger could not even bring herself, as a woman leading the race by so many points, to say that Jay Jones, who is the attorney general candidate on the Democratic side who said it was okay to murder his opponent, she couldn't even have the strength to distance herself from that. And this was two weeks after Charlie Kirk was assassinated. So I don't know what is going to happen in either of these states. I do think that New Jersey is much closer than Virginia. And if that happens, then there's a little bit more of a mixed message for the Democrats.

A (22:16)

Wholeheartedly, I condemn all these attacks. I'm a believer that you can have rabid and massive disagreements about a whole range of things. We disagree on a lot of things around this table. But that doesn't mean that you have to hold hate in your heart for someone or hate someone. And that's unfortunately where so much of our politics is descended. I don't know what I can guess and surmise some of the things that maybe Leader Pelosi is upset about. And she probably, if you ask her, and I may, I hope, would regret saying that he was the worst person on the face of the earth in light of not only the examples that Kayleigh has given, but we can all think of examples of scum. What I think is telling about all this is that the American people today, in some parts of the country, are going to have a chance to vote on. It's kind of a referendum on this kind of politics. People want answers and outcomes. You think about it today, more Americans believe that the American dream is out of reach for their kids and grandkids than ever before. You have fewer Democrats who are patriotic, who claim great American patriotism than in the last 30 years. In fact, Republicans are at a lower number. You showed me that unbelievable graph just the other week. This is what I think is distressing and frankly, what people should be focused on. One of the reasons that. Madame, and you said it in your opening statement, Greg, about Mondambi, one of the reasons he's been able to attract some attention and get some traction is that he's talking. He's diagnosed the problem. Right. He just doesn't have the right answers. And all of these candidates, including the race in New Jersey, energy prices, property taxes, these are all affordability issues. The only good thing about where we are is as bad a moment as we are in politics, voters are focused on those issues that are going to make their lives better. And at the core of making their lives better is Making things more affordable. We don't get to answers with the kinds of things that Ms. Pelosi said. I would agree. We get to answers with people having honest debate and for that matter, voters being able to say here's whom we want to lead us out of this mess. And we'll see tonight if voters made the right decision not by which party they chose, by whether or not the people, but better said by whether or not the people whom they choose are able to lead them to higher.