How Jessica Tarlov of The Five Became a Liberal Star on Fox News

It was a day after Bret Baier’s contentious interview with Vice President Kamala Harris, and the Fox News punditocracy on “The Five,” the network’s most popular show, was celebrating.“She’s ice-cold, she’s unlikable, and her arguments are incoherent,” sneered Jesse Watters.

“The look and the tone of a D.M.V.clerk who wants to take her break,” scoffed Greg Gutfeld.But a dissenter was in their midst.“What Kamala Harris needed to do was to show up, to look tough, to not get rattled,” said Jessica Tarlov, the show’s resident Democrat and one of Ms.

Harris’s most outspoken defenders in the cantankerous realm of cable news.She added, “I think she handled herself really well.”Her co-hosts, avid supporters of former President Donald J.

Trump, rolled their eyes.Ms.

Tarlov, 40, paid no heed.She told Fox viewers that Mr.

Trump was “unstable,” “unfit” and devoid of sympathy.She debunked the network’s usual talking points about a migrant-fueled crime wave, pointing out the national decrease in homicides.

And when Mr.Gutfeld claimed that only Republican men were handy around the garage, Ms.

Tarlov administered a quick fact check.“Jesse, can you change a car tire?” she asked.Mr.Watters laughed: “I have a guy for that.”The token liberal has long been a stock character of Fox News’s ongoing opéra bouffe.

Sean Hannity was paired with Alan Colmes.The lefty chair on “The Five” cycled through Bob Beckel (fired), Juan Williams (transferred) and Geraldo Rivera (who was demoted and then quit).Few, though, have broken out like Ms.

Tarlov, a dish-it-out Democratic strategist with a C.V.that reads like a parody of a Manhattan elitist: prep school at Dalton, a degree from Bryn Mawr, a family loft in TriBeCa and a father who produced movies by the liberal provocateur John Waters.

(“Right from the heartland,” she jokes.)...