Fox News host Jesse Watters desperately tried to do damage control last night after he was accused of making a crude sexual comment about Kamala Harris.
Watters faced calls to resign after she said Harris would be “hamstrung” by generals “getting their way” in the Situation Room.
The 46-year-old denied the comment was sexual, despite criticism on the live broadcast from his The Five co-hosts Jeanine Pirro and Dana Perino.
The crisis deepened Tuesday when Watters drew criticism from both sides of the political spectrum. Doug Emhoff’s ex-wife Kerstin and Republican Rep. Barbara Comstock expressed concern over the comments.
Watters, who has repeatedly caused a stir — not least for cheating on his first wife with a younger Fox colleague — refused to apologize on The Five last night, while desperately trying to clarify the comments.
Fox News pundit Jesse Waters has insisted his comment about Kamala Harris ‘didn’t imply anything sexual’ after widespread backlash
“There has been some attention to comments made on the show yesterday about VP Harris. People are misinterpreting my comments and thinking they mean something inappropriate,” he said.
“I was not implying anything of a sexual nature. I was expressing my opinion that VP Harris’ current leadership style could be a problem if he were elected.”
TORMENTED ANALOGY
Watters was talking about foreign policy and his criticism of Harris’ lack of credibility when he dropped the controversial comment.
“What is her foreign policy?” the Fox host asked. “This is where the commander in chief has the most impact. We don’t know who she is. We don’t know what she believes,” he said.
“She becomes paralyzed in the situation room while the generals have their way with her,” he continued.
Doug Emhoff’s ex-wife responds after Fox News host Jesse Watters made controversial comment that generals will ‘have their way’ with the vice president if she’s elected
Watters’ own co-hosts appeared shocked by his crude suggestion.
“Jesse Watters,” chided co-host Judge Jeanine Pirro. “I don’t like that. Take it back.”
Watters, who left his first wife for a producer 14 years his junior, whom he subsequently married, shook his head.
“Figuratively,” he quickly added.
“Let her have her way! Control her,” the Fox host continued. “Not in a sexual way,” Watters said.
In the background, co-host Greg Gutfeld appeared to laugh.
Watters tried to ignore the awkward moment and get back to the point he wanted to make about Harris’ foreign policy.
‘Ukraine is now invading Russia and you’re going to appoint her as commander in chief?’
“What is her foreign policy?” the Fox host asked Harris
Kerstin Emhoff with ex-husband Doug Emhoff and daughter Ella. Doug Emhoff is married to Vice President Kamala Harris
FIERCE COUNTERPELL
Despite Watters’ attempt to forget the gaffe, viewers were stunned by the Fox host’s unusual choice of words.
Kerstin Emhoff, the ex-wife of Harris’ husband Doug Emhoff, was one of them.
“There are a lot of things to be concerned about, but Kamala being abused in the situation room is not one of them,” she wrote on Twitter.
Emhoff is a staunch defender of the vice president, who has been married to her ex-husband since 2014, after his first marriage ended in 2009.
Republican Congresswoman Barbara Comstock also weighed in on the controversy, calling Watters “the dumbest and most annoying man on Fox.”
“When even Fox hosts can’t tolerate the willful misogyny towards @KamalaHarris by the dumbest and most annoying man on Fox, Jesse Watters,” she wrote on X.
‘The brain worms that are “running wild” in this boy’s head…’
Several users called for the Fox News host to be fired, calling his comment abhorrent, misogynistic, sexist, disgusting and repulsive.
Watters, 41, and his ex-wife Noelle Watters, 42, finalized their divorce in March 2019 after 10 years of marriage
After Watters began dating DiGiovine, he reported the consensual relationship to Fox and she was moved to The Ingraham Angle, another show on the network. The two continued dating after her work shift
American journalist Yashar Ali posted a clip of the moment and wrote: ‘Would Watters use this sexualized language when describing a heterosexual man? Probably not!’
Someone responded in the comments: ‘A classic misogynist. He was singled out and you can see his smile. He didn’t say that innocently. He meant it that way.’
Someone else wrote: ‘Another day, another example of Jesse Watters’ sexism and misogyny.’
However, other viewers protested, saying the presenter did not mean his statements sexually.
“He immediately said afterward that he didn’t mean it sexually,” one viewer said.
“You watched it. So you know he said he didn’t mean it sexually, so why are you going there?” asked another.
WATTERS’ WORLD
Watters’s vitriolic attack on Harris was just the latest scandal for the right-wing commentator, who has carved out a niche for himself on the network with his feeble attempts at humor and fact-checking.
Outside of the studio, he had a notorious affair in 2017 with Emma DiGiovine, an associate producer on his show Watters’ World.
He admitted to cheating on his wife Noelle and their divorce was finalized in March 2019. Watters and DiGiovine married just months later in Naples, Florida.
Watters first came to prominence through his work on The O’Reilly Factor, where he appeared in a recurring segment called Watters’ World.
Watters tried to shake off the awkward moment and return to his main point: Harris’ unsophisticated foreign policy
One segment of New York City’s Chinatown was widely criticized for openly mocking older Chinese who did not speak English. The piece also played with dated and unfunny racial stereotypes.
In April 2017, during an appearance on The Five, he made a joke that many saw as grossly sexual about Donald Trump’s daughter Ivanka.
Watters brought his hand to his mouth and said, “I don’t really understand what’s going on here, but I really liked the way she spoke into that microphone.”
The negative reactions were similar to his comment about Harris, claiming he only meant that she looked like a DJ.
He then suddenly announced that he was going on vacation.
Watters was criticized for comments he made about Ivanka Trump in 2017
Watters was criticized by his own colleagues when he ‘mansplained’ to victims of sexual abuse after allegations against New York Governor Andrew Cuomo emerged.
“I would suggest to women – and I’ve gotten in trouble for saying this before – to punch the man in the face. And you do it right away,” he said.
Julie Roginsky, with whom Fox News settled in 2017 over allegations that she was sexually harassed by Chairman Roger Ailes, was particularly damning.
“If the women were to become violent towards the harasser, their careers would be over. Many are bound by forced arbitrations and NDAs at the beginning of their employment,” she said.
“They couldn’t tell their stories. Jesse’s better suggestion is to put the responsibility on his fellow men to not harass women.”
RISING STAR
In 2023, after Fox fired Tucker Carlson from the network, the rising star was hand-picked to fill the coveted 8 p.m. time slot.
In late July, Watters raised eyebrows when he said that women who vote for Kamala Harris have “mom issues” and that men who vote for her will turn into women.
“Voting for a woman just because she’s a woman?” he asked during an episode of The Five. “It’s either childish, or that person has issues with their mother, or they’re just trying to be accepted by other women.”
The Fox host then made a joke about what happens to men who vote for women.
“I heard recently that scientists said that if a man votes for a woman, he essentially becomes a woman,” Watters said.