Fox News host Jesse Watters said during a segment of The Five that if his wife secretly voted for Vice President Kamala Harris, it would be “like having an affair.”
The panel was discussing a recent Harris campaign ad voiced by actress Jessica Roberts, suggesting to women that they can vote for the VP without telling their Trump-backing husbands.
Watters admitted in 2018 that his relationship with his now-wife Emma DiGiovine began as an affair during his first marriage. DiGiovine was a producer on his show at the time, according to Mediaite. The affair led to Watters’s first wife filing for divorce.
In the voting booth, women still have the right to choose. New and important ad from @VoteCommon featuring Julia Roberts reminds women that no one will know who they voted for. Pass it on. pic.twitter.com/XALnryVPNm
— Shannon Watts (@shannonrwatts) October 28, 2024
“If I found out Emma was going to the voting booth and pulling the lever for Harris, that’s the same thing as having an affair,” Watters told the rest of the panel. “That violates the sanctity of our marriage. What else is she keeping from me? What is she lying about?”
“Why would she lie to you?” fellow panelist Jeanine Pirro asked.
“Why would she do that and vote Harris? Why would she say she was voting… If I caught her and she said ‘I lied to you for the last four years’,” he added.
“It’s over, Emma!” Watters said in a mocking tone. “That would be D-Day!”
The ad, produced by the Christian-backed political group Vote Common Good, has faced backlash online from conservative voters and pundits who claim it encourages people to lie to their partners.
Appearing on Megyn Kelly’s SiriusXM program, rightwing commentator and activist Charlie Kirk said Harris “needs people to basically lie to their husbands, which they are promoting ... I find that entire advertising campaign so repulsive. It is so disastrous ... It is the embodiment of the downfall of the American family.”
“I think it's so gross. I think it's so just nauseating where this wife is wearing the American hat. She's coming in with her sweet husband, who probably works his tail off to make sure that she can ... have a nice life and provide for the family,” he added.
“And then she lies to him, saying, ‘Oh yeah, I'm gonna vote for Trump.’ And then she votes for Kamala Harris as her little secret in the voting booth. Kamala Harris and her team believe that there will be millions of women that undermine their husbands, and do so in a way that it's not detectable in the polling.”
Vote Common Good, a non-profit organisation that encourages people of faith to vote in good conscience, has defended the ad.
“People know how much pressure there is on voters, and not just women,” executive director Doug Pagitt said. “There is so much pressure, especially in the religious community, that someone not break away.”
The controversy over the ad comes as former President Donald Trump said he would “protect” women whether they “like it or not.”
“I said, ‘Well, I’m going to do it, whether the women like it or not,’” Trump said on Wednesday night in Wisconsin. “I’m going to protect them.”
The Harris campaign seized on the moment, with Harris writing on X: “Donald Trump thinks he should get to make decisions about what you do with your body. Whether you like it or not.”
