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Jesse Watters has tried to shrug off his sexually suggestive comments that generals “would have their way” with Kamala Harris if she is elected president.
The Fox News host has faced enormous backlash for his remarks during Monday’s episode of The Five, with some viewers calling for him to be fired.
On Tuesday night’s show, Watters addressed the furore directly, claiming the comment has been “misconstrued” and was not intended to be sexual.
“There’s been some attention to comments I made on the show yesterday about VP Harris,” he said.
“People are misconstruing my comments to mean something inappropriate.
“I wasn’t suggesting anything of a sexual nature. I was expressing my opinion that vice president Harris’s current leadership style could be an issue if elected.”
On Monday’s show, the hosts were discussing Harris’s foreign policy and the US’s Afghanistan withdrawal in August 2021 – on what marked the third anniversary of the chaotic withdrawal.
During the discussion, Watters made an unsavory comment about the woman campaigning to become America’s first female president.
“What is her foreign policy? This is where the president has the most impact,” Watters asked.
“We don’t know who she is, we don’t know what she believes. She’s going to get paralyzed in the situation room while the generals have their way with her.”
Watters’s co-host Jeanine Pirro quickly condemned his comments, saying: “I don’t like that. Take it back.”
Dana Perino also waded in, highlighting her disapproval by saying Watters’ name in full.
In an attempt to row back, Watters said: “Figuratively…Have their way with her, control her…not in a sexual way.”
Later on in Monday’s show, Watters acknowledged the controversial comment again when the panel discussed the Kennedy family’s condemnation of RFK Jr, after he endorsed Donald Trump for president.
Watters joked his mother would “probably go on MSNBC tonight” and say that “my son, Jesse Watters made a joke about Kamala Harris being manhandled by generals in the situation room... I can see my mom doing that.”
Viewers were outraged by the remarks, branding him misogynistic, sexist and calling for the network to fire him.
Activist Amy Siskind said on X: “Jesse Waters should be fired for this. Even the two women on this panel were appalled. What say you @FoxNews?”
Another person wrote: “Jesse Watters needs to [be] fired immediately.”
“Jesse Watters thinks misogyny is funny,” one person posted.
Another person also chimed in: “There was a time not so long ago when ppl [sic] most likely would be taken off the air, and possibly fired for saying anything such as this. He’s a real jerk, to say the least.”
“This is how these guys talk about their own daughters when they’re not around too,” another said.
Kerstin Emhoff, Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff’s ex-wife, also slammed his comments.
“There are many things to worry about, but Kamala being manhandled in the situation room is not one of them,” she wrote on X.
Criticism also came in from the other side of the political aisle, with former Republican congresswoman Barbara Comstock saying that “nobody misconstrued” Watters’s comments.
She posted on X: “When even Fox Hosts can’t abide the intentional misogyny against @KamalaHarris by the dumbest and most obnoxious man on Fox, Jesse Watters.”
This isn’t the first time Perino and Pirro have reprimand their co-host for making sexist comments.
In another sexist rant on the show – mocking The White Dudes for Harris fundraiser – Watters suggested that men who vote for a female candidate based on her gender are “childish”, have “mommy issues” or are only “trying to be accepted by other women”.
“It was basically saying ‘If you want to be accepted by women you should vote for a woman’,” Watters said.
That time, Perino also interjected: “What?”
“And I heard the scientists say the other day when a man votes for a woman he actually transitions into a woman,” Watters said sarcastically.
Perino retorted back in the same tone: “Oh is that right?”
Watters was also shut down by his female co-hosts during a rant about electric cars when he said women in relationships “don’t control which car to buy.”
