>> welcome! this is "the final 5" end-of-2017 spectacular. and, tonight, we're taking a look back at some of the biggest political stories of the year -- the inauguration of president trump, the russia probe, the #metoo movement as it gained strength, roy moore, who proved a republican can actually lose in alabama, and a heated governor's race in virginia. this is "the final 5." let's do this. >> ♪ don't mess with america ♪ ♪ ya only get one chance ♪ ♪ then it's time to dance ♪ >> all right. let's start. we're gonna go back to the beginning of 2017. seems like a very long time ago. i remember it as if it were just yesterday. and, in january, the big event here in d.c. was the inauguration of donald trump. a lot of times, inaugural speeches are a way for new presidents to reach across the aisle and give a positive outlook looking forward, but the president said america had fallen into disrepair, cited "american carnage," and promised to grab power from the elites

and put the u.s. back on top. >> hear these words -- you will never be ignored again. [ cheers and applause ] from this day forward, a new vision will govern our land. from this day forward, it's going to be only "america first." america first. >> and maybe one of the most talked-about aspects of the inauguration was the crowd side. look, we saw it -- there were a lot of open spots on the mall. but the newly minted trump administration insisted it was the biggest and bestest inauguration crowd ever! >> photographs of the inaugural proceedings were intentionally framed in a way, in one particular tweet, to minimize the enormous support that had gathered on the national mall. this was the largest audience to ever witness an inauguration -- period -- both in person and around the globe. >> by the way, that was the only time we ever saw "spicey"

saw how the neck was kind of up like that. the president was not a fan of that. the crowd-size comparison wasn't just made with previous inaugurations because, the day after the president was sworn in, the women's march descended upon d.c., becoming the largest single-day protest in u.s. history. and other cities also joined in with their own marches, and, despite the massive crowds, the women's march remained peaceful. there were no arrests made during that. so, we know inauguration weekend was "'uge," but the political story that really dominated the past year is [singsong voice] russia, russia, russia! [ normal voice ] we'll probably still be talking about russia's election meddling for years to come, and the president isn't happy it's commanded so many headlines, insisting there was no collusion between his campaign and the russian government. now, we know, in may, a special counsel was appointed, and one of the big reasons that happened was because of fallout from the firing of former fbi director james comey. comey leaked private memos, detailing his interactions with president trump to a friend who was a journalist. he says the president tried to persuade him to end the investigation into former national security advisor michael flynn. that led the president to suggest there might be tapes of

their conversations. >> look, i've seen the tweet about tapes. lordy, i hope there are tapes. i remember saying, "i agree he's a good guy," as a way of saying, "i'm not agreeing with what you just asked me to do." >> lordy! we also found out there were no tapes. so far, in the special counsel probe, there have been a handful of indictments and guilty pleas. former trump campaign chair paul manafort and business partner rick gates were indicted on money laundering and other charges. this all stemmed from their work with a pro-russian political party in ukraine, but the charges stem from things that happened well before the trump campaign. both manafort and gates have pleaded not guilty. then there's george papadopoulos, a former advisor for the trump campaign. the president says he was just a low-level volunteer, a "coffee boy," if you will. papadopoulos pled guilty to lying to the fbi about his contacts with russia. he was the first one to plead guilty, and then the second one was former national security advisor michael flynn. he pleaded guilty to lying with the fbi, but he did strike a plea deal with the special counsel's team.

cooperating, this is likely not the end of the russia probe. and another thing we heard a lot about when it comes to russia -- that dossier, that unverified research with scandalous claims about president trump's ties to russia, that was funded in part by the dnc and the clinton campaign. the white house says it's totally fake, but probably the best term of the year comes from the russia probe -- "russian troll farms"! facebook and twitter reveal that accounts operated by russian troll farms were posting actual fake news and ads in an effort to deepen political divisions. and we also got a look at some of the ads, including this one, which called hillary clinton... satan. but with the mueller probe and congressional investigations ongoing, russian meddling in 2016 is something we're gonna be talking about in 2017 -- which we did -- and into 2018. but let's be honest -- the big story that commanded the headlines over the last couple of months and really started this whole conversation in 2017 about sexual harassment and assault and encouraged victims to come forward -- women have been sharing their stories using

of powerful men from both sides of the aisle now facing criticism and consequences as women come forward with stories of sexual misconduct. harvey weinstein, matt lauer, kevin spacey, charlie rose -- just a couple of the guys who were fired this year over sexual-misconduct claims. and, of course, there are politicians on the list. democratic congressman john conyers of michigan, he was the first one out amid allegations he sexually harassed women on his staff for years. but the 88-year-old claimed the accusations were not why he was stepping down, saying he resigned because of his health. and then democrat al franken of minnesota stepped down from the senate, following pressure from his fellow democrats. more than half a dozen women came forward with allegations against him. and then there's republican congressman trent franks of arizona. he originally said he'd be stepping down in january because he had a discussion about surrogacy with two female staffers and apparently made them feel uncomfortable. then, all of a sudden, franks was out immediately, and then more to the story came out. or as paul harvey would say, "the rest of the story," which i know really fits that demo that

"the final 5." politico reported two employees were asked by franks to be a surrogate, but it was not made clear exactly how he wanted to get them pregnant. one employee also said franks offered her 5 million bucks to be his surrogate. but we can't talk about sexual misconduct in 2017 without mentioning roy moore. he is the answer to the question, "what republican could lose in deep-red alabama?" after moore won the gop primary with just weeks left until the general election, the washington post dropped that bombshell with allegations moore pursued teen girls back when he was in his 30s and that he sexually assaulted a girl when she was 14. now, we should point out moore has denied the allegations categorically. his supporters tried to discredit the women who came forward. and although this campaign initially lost support -- the rnc pulled out, then they came back in, and then they eventually got the endorsement of president trump, but doug jones came out on top. who? exactly. but he still won -- a very narrow margin of victory. >> i have always believed that the people of al

in common than to divide us. [ cheers and applause ] we have shown, not just around the state of alabama, but we have shown the country the way that we can be unified. [ cheers and applause ] >> jones' win gives republicans an even slimmer majority in the senate. once he's sworn in, it'll be a 51-49 republican lead, and even though president trump endorsed moore, he wanted to make it clear after the election that wasn't why moore lost. on election night, president trump congratulated doug jones in a tweet, but, the next morning, he wanted to remind all of us that roy moore was not his first choice, writing... now, this is not the first time roy moore ran for office in alabama, and it's probably not going to be the last, but there are a few images from this

the time he waved a tiny gun around onstage during a campaign rally as a visual to show us how much [chuckles] he loves the second amendment. and then there was "cowboy roy," riding up to his polling place on election day on his horse, sassy. i'm sure roy was disappointed in his loss, but i don't think sassy was too excited about all of the prospects of coming to washington. i don't think sassy would do quite well on the beltway. the other big election of 2017 was right here in our neck of the woods. the virginia governor's race was closely watched not just here locally but everybody, because a lot of analysts were looking to the race as a referendum on president trump. now, we know he endorsed gop candidate ed gillespie but didn't go out on the campaign trail with him. it looked like gillespie wanted to keep the president at arm's length, he didn't want to be tied too closely to him, and, really, this was a contentious race down the stretch. you might still be having flashbacks to some of those negative ads that were constantly running up to election day. it ended up being ralph northam, the democrat, who came out on top, and he seem r

the negativity of the campaign behind him. >> the divisiveness, the hatred, the bigotry, the politics that is tearing this country apart, that's not the united states of america that people love. it's certainly not the commonwealth of virginia. >> now, northam's victory wasn't the only victory for democrats on election night. they also won the governor's race in new jersey, as well as a number of state-legislative and mayoral races. some analysts thought that the races were a sign of what's to come in the midterms, but you know what we're gonna have to do? wait and see. which is what keeps us on the air. up next on "the final 5," we're looking back at the president's most-talked-about sound bites of the year. back after this. >> ♪ take control of me ♪ ♪ get the vibe ♪ ♪ it's gonna be lit tonight ♪ ♪ no lie ♪

♪♪ >> ♪ don't mess with america ♪ >> we're back now with "the top 5" sound bites of the year. of course, so much to talk about tonight, and helping me out here -- my friends, your friends, our friends... >> we're friends. [

>> ...brody logan from fox 5, tim young from the washington examiner's "no things considered." gentlemen, thank you for joining me this evening. >> yeah, thanks for having me. >> yeah. >> we got applause. >> we did, yeah, yeah. the studio audience was here. >> a lot happened this year. >> really? >> [ laughs ] >> i know. it's crazy. it feels like it's been nine years, but it's been one year. it's like a cat's life. >> let's get the heavy stuff out of the way first. when we talk about the sound bites, i don't think you can go too far without talking about what the president said after charlottesville. let's listen. >> what about the alt-left that came charging at the -- as you say, the alt-right? do they have any semblance of guilt? i think there's blame on both sides. you look at both sides, i think there's blame on both sides, and i have no doubt about it, and you don't have any doubt about it either. >> you know, i think, when we heard that, it was like, "why fight about it? why push it?" >> i get that a lot of these protests turn into "fight club," where both sides wanted to show up and fight, so i get that point, but the thing was what he left out there, and what he left out was, "white

nationalism is bad." he kept refusing to say that for a little while there, and that's what made that a...quote. >> we see this a lot when the president goes off script or doesn't have a script. >> good point. >> he just goes to fighting, and he goes to the bully pulpit, in that he goes to that bully -- and that's what he did for all of those rallies. it's what got him elected. so he goes back to it, and that's when he puts his foot in his mouth. >> look, when they go against the media, when you have that adversarial relationship, there are people that respond to that, because the media has abdicated a lot of their responsibility in years past, leading up to the election. >> people don't like us. >> no. >> people like me. >> they like -- yeah, they like him. [ cheers and applause ] >> [ laughs ] >> they like the sweaters. they like the sweaters. so is that sort of like your new softer persona? >> yeah, i was told to wear this after an hr meeting. they said, "please just wear a sweater from now on. you look more approachable." >> all right. let's talk about the president and north korea. let's go. >> north korea best not make any more threats to the united states. they will be met with fire and

fury like the world has never seen. >> and we still have never seen it, 'cause it hasn't happened yet. >> listen, he's threatening -- he's got a dragon, all right, and it's coming, like "game of thrones." >> two of 'em -- "fire" and "fury." >> winter's coming for north korea. >> i will say this, though -- let's be honest. i mean, if we're under attack, if north korea's coming after us, you kind of what -- you want the president to show some backbone. i think you do it right there. maybe scare the hell out of people a little bit, but melania, i don't think, knew where this was going. >> melania didn't want to be in the white house, didn't know where anything -- >> "get me out of here." >> yeah. all right, this one -- man, we've talked about this one. >> ad nauseam. >> let's talk a little bit about the president and the big nfl "kneeling controversy." >> wouldn't you love to see one of these nfl owners... >> this was in alabama. >> ...when somebody disrespects our flag, to say, "get that son of a [bleep] off the field right now. out. he's fired. he's fired!" >> yeah, wl,

thing, i didn't know if we could... [ wistful violin plays ] [ laughs ] i'm trying to figure where that music was right there. >> i like it, though. >> it was good. >> set the mood. >> i didn't know if we could say sob on tv, and i think we said it sometimes. i'll go with what the president -- >> now it's presidential. >> [ laughing ] that's true. >> sob is presidential, so we can all say it. >> well, i mean, he really -- i felt, at that point -- 'cause he was at a rally for luther strange at that point, in the primary for the alabama -- >> remember him? >> yeah, long time ago -- "big luther." >> when there used to be sensible candidates for senate in alabama? >> yeah. you know, had they nominated luther strange, luther strange would still be in the u.s. senate. >> wouldn't have been "strange." >> would not have been strange. >> the genius of these ridiculous -- these sound bites from the president -ou wearing that get-up, but go ahead. >> oh, yeah, i thought we were just not gonna acknowledge it the whole time, [laughs] which would have been great. so, the thing about these sound bites is the president knows he can totally shift the news narrative. >> yeah. >> as much as he hates the news media, he controls -- >> he doesn't hate the news media. >> no, but he controls the news media, and he knows it. so every time he says something

about the nfl kneeling, that's all we talked about for like a month. >> well, remember what happened that weekend. >> right. >> obamacare didn't get replaced and repealed. >> exactly. >> we weren't talking about the nfl. the nfl kneeling controversy was just about dead. >> yeah. >> and then you had mike pence go to that colts game and do that whole stunt. >> for five minutes. >> and then he tweeted out the picture of him and karen from a game four years prior. >> yeah. >> just a little darker. i don't think it was him. it was his staff but -- >> i hope that my taxpayer dollars went directly to that trip to indianapolis. >> just earmarked it? >> yeah. >> all right. let's talk about the president. he was -- well, you remember he used to be a reality-show host? >> what? >> he was on a show called "the apprentice." >> it was huge. >> it was 'uge. and then a guy named arnold schwarzenegger became the host, and this happened at the national prayer breakfast. >> and they hired a big, big movie star, arnold schwarzenegger, to take my place. and we know how that turned out. [ laughter ] the ratings went right down the tubes. it's been a total disaster.

against trump again. and i want to just pray for arnold if we can for those ratings, okay? >> [ laughs ] so, here's what i love, is that he says, "mark won't bet against trump again." you have another job! that's why you weren't hosting anymore. >> he's gonna be okay. >> but it's like, "you left to go be president." it's not -- did he think that he was replaced by arnold schwarzenegger just 'cause he was a bad host? >> one of the things of all of these clips so far that a lot of people aren't seeing at home is that, every time trump starts speaking, i've done a face-palm, like, actually physically in front of you guys. >> 'cause you know where it's going. >> it's awful. like, this is just so awful. >> it is a fun trip down memory lane because i totally forgot most of this ever happened. so much has happened this year. >> yeah, well, and when you talk about "the apprentice," again, i think people forgot it was still on the air at that point. >> yeah. >> and, by the way, speaking of arnold schwarzenegger, isn't it amazing that we all forgot, back in 2003, when he was running for governor, he had a whole "grope fest" controversy around him? and he pretty much admitted to it, yeah, but that -- >> it's back before it was trendy to get fired for that. >> 14 years ago, that was a bi

deal, and now... >> you know, now he's america's sweetheart. no, he's not. >> [ laughs ] >> all right. last but not least -- this was pretty recent -- a ceremony to honor navajo code talkers, and the president again went off script. >> you're very, very special people. you were here long before any of us were here... although we have a representative in congress who they say was here a long time ago. they call her "pocahontas." >> [ chuckles ] who's "they"? >> right, it's -- yeah. >> you! "i call her poca--" like, "they." >> these poor guys. they were just railroaded. >> they were just here for the free lunch. >> oh, my god. >> yeah. >> you know, talking about being off script, i feel like a show should be named after that, but, anyway, that's like a whole... >> nobody would watch it. >> nobody would watch it. >> by the way, under the picture of andrew jackson, a.k.a. -- >> look, i just... >> optics. we're gonna talk about tweets after the break. stay tuned. >> ♪...that brings a building

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♪♪ >> ♪ don't mess with america ♪ >> you know the president likes to tweet? did you know that? >> no. >> yeah. >> i don't -- at this point, he probably doesn't like it >> well, couple tweets this year to take a look at -- first of all, the feud with the co-hosts of "morning joe," when he said... >> can somebody stop grandpa from watching morning news? i mean, really? >> right, but i love that he sees, "i don't watch anymore, but i know exactly what happened." like people are walking around, talking about "morning joe" at the white house. >> aw. >> remember, though, they used to have him on all the time -- all the time. every morning show. he had that direct line to the control room, so times have changed. >> she looks great. she's got a good plastic surgeon. >> and she admitted to it, too. she said she had some work done. >> and he's one to talk. >> allegedly. then there was a string of insults directed at gop senator bob corker, who said he couldn't

get elected dog catcher in tennessee. he's "now fighting tax cuts," although he did vote -- oh, no, he didn't. no, he didn't. he did not. he was the one who did not vote. >> it's "little" bob corker. >> oh, "little bob." but, yeah, we saw that tweet right there. and then let's take a look at another tweet here, this one from kim jong-un. he's trying to take the high road here... are they still trying to seek something out? are they gonna go on a camping trip or something? >> i like the passive-aggressiveness of that. >> that is good. that is good. >> that's well formed. that one, that's a good tweet. >> a lot of people were wondering if he was actually diplomat in chief, and i think that was very diplomatic. >> [ laughing ] it was. >> very much so. it was an olive branch to the short and fat leader of north korea. >> "rocket man," "dotard," whatever. >> they don't get twitter there. >> that's what i was curious about. this one here -- well, of course, he said -- when he gets all this criticism, he said... >> can't argue with that. >> yeah, it is now presidential.

>> well, i mean, he said -- and give him credit for the fact that he found this way to leverage twitter in a way that you can get right through the media, get your message out there. i don't think, all the time, it's not necessarily on the plane of what you would expect a presidential proclamation but -- >> but it's not only getting through the media -- we cover every single one of his stupid tweets! like, no matter what he tweets, we cover it. so it's part of the media, which is ridiculous. >> yeah, your job sucks. [ both laugh ] but, you know, obama had the number-one tweet this year, so he's not the best at twitter. >> right after charlottesville. people just keep hitting the retweet. >> i think "chicken nuggets" beat him, though. >> that's right. "chicken nuggets" beat everybody -- carter, #nuggsforcarter. >> yeah. >> which, by the way, wendy's said, "get 18 million tweets." he only got 3 million, and they still gave him the nuggets. [ booing ] >> yeah. what a joke. >> yeah. and, finally, the tweet that everyone was trying to decode. i remember i was at home. it was right after work one night. ♪ "despite the constant negative press" ♪ "[ deep voice ] covfefe." >> what do you think of the people who got, like, the "covfefe" license plates? what are they doing now?

you what, a lot of people -- they co-opted that phrase. >> those people voted in alabama, okay? [ both laugh ] >> yeah. >> well, and, again, the explanation that came out, saying the president was trying to send a message to people -- people who knew what the message was. that's why there dms. that's why there's text messaging. >> i still don't understand -- >> tweeting in code. >> yeah. >> i don't know either. i think, obviously, twitter is going to be still the major avenue going into 2018. >> god bless him. direct contact with the president of the united states every morning at 3:00 a.m. >> it's clockwork. we know when the president is watching cable news. we know what he is watching. how amazing would it be to be a producer on a program that you know the president is watching every morning and just thinking, "i can totally influence what the president is going to tweet about today"? >> yeah. guides the conversation. >> that is power right there. >> there was a morning where i saw on "fox & friends" they were just rhyming things with "candy cane." no lie. he watches that. >> [ laughs ] >> all right. [ laughing ] we're back after

this on "the final 5." >> all the presidents tweets were in rhyme. ♪♪ >> ♪ true... ♪ this time of year is all about family. and we'd like you to be part of ours. so our chevy employee discount is now available to everyone. you pay what we pay. not a cent more. we're so happy to share this with you. it's our way of saying happy holidays.

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>> all right. hey, before we go tonight, if you're president trump, what would your new year's resolution be? >> less diet cokes. he's got 12 a day. he needs to cut it to eight. >> [ laughs ] >> if i'm the president, i love nothing more than campaign rallies, so more campaign rallies. >> one a week? >> as the great american poet ludacris once said, "champagne with my campaign." so... >> [ laughs ] >> i'm drinking to that. >> in the grand scheme of things, i hope the president learned -- >> [ laughing ] you already drank... >> so, [stammers] bottoms up. i think, in the grand scheme of things, what we got to realize going into 2018 is let's put everything else aside. people don't want extremism. people want to see government do something. that goes for everybody. that goes for the president, and that goes for congress. >> but you have to think, "what are the president's resolutions going to be?" it will not be those things! >> no, but we're trying to be idealistic. >> [ laughs ] >> getting better ratings on fox. >> yes! see, there you go. >> yeah, all right. cheers, guys. >> cheers. happy new year. >> timothy, good to see you, my friend. and thank you for watching

and we'll see you every weeknight here on fox 5 at 11:30, "the final 5." we couldn't do it without ya! >> ♪ i made it through the darkest part of the night ♪ ♪ and now i see the sunrise ♪ ♪ now... ♪

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announcer: today on "tmz"! >> ok. merry christmas, everybody. merry christmas. christmas has just begun because we're going to give people presents. >> yay! harvey: if they can get the answers to these clues about stories that we have done about celebrities. in order to qualify, we're going to bring two people up and have you put the mitts on and open the present and the person who opens the present first gets to guess who the celebrity is and you can win the prize. the prizes are awesome. they are both at