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Jesse Watters' history of inflammatory and dehumanizing remarks

Written by Helena Hind & Isabella Corrao

Published

Fox News host Jesse Watters’ inflammatory rhetoric has reached new lows during the second Trump administration. After the right-wing prime-time host said last week that America needed to bomb or “maybe gas” the United Nations headquarters, Reuters reported that the international governing body had reached out to Fox News and that Watters privately apologized. No such apology was given on-air.

Watters has a history of espousing extreme views. For years, he has engaged in hateful rhetoric, such as against homeless people; he also openly hyped a Trump “revenge tour” against his political enemies.

    • Fox News host Jesse Watters outlined his solution for homelessness: “Bulldoze the 50-block radius, and you institutionalize everybody.” Watters claimed that in Los Angeles he saw “drugged-out zombies chasing barefooted babies through piles of garbage with hypodermic needles and fire everywhere.” [Fox News, The Five, 6/3/19]
    • After reporting on business owners using fences and cacti to keep homeless people off their property, Watters offered additional cruel ideas. Watters said, “Canines: They bark very loudly. The homeless will never be able to sleep. … I would install video cameras to monitor illegal activities, so then when you call the cops you have proof. The best thing: Sprinkler systems. You install a sprinkler system manually, effective, boom. They can't sleep. They're all wet. They have to move somewhere else.” [Fox News, The Five, 7/11/19]
    • The next day, Watters again pushed his idea to use sprinklers on homeless people. “Have a little sprinkler system, then maybe wet them and then move them. Or loud music or loud canines,” mused Watters. [Fox News, The Five, 7/12/19]
    • Watters suggested that involuntary institutionalization of “anyone with facial tattoos” would end mass shootings. [Fox News, Jesse Watters Primetime, 7/5/22]
    • Watters voiced support for allowing teachers to spank students: “Can you paddle female students?” [Fox News, The Five, 8/25/22]
    • Watters argued that it was “more civilized when we banished” homeless people to “asylums and put them in straitjackets.” [Fox News, Jesse Watters Primetime, 9/22/22]
    • Watters suggested setting homes on fire to remove squatters: “What can you do besides arson?” [Fox News, The Five, 10/24/22]
    • Watters joked about using violence against protesters: “Knock ’em out!” [Fox News, The Five, 11/7/22]
    • Watters said government officials need to “extinguish” homeless encampments. [Fox News, Jesse Watters Primetime, 6/29/23]
    • After President Donald Trump was indicted in special counsel Jack Smith’s election interference case, Watters said: “Don't you think for a second he's not going to unleash hell on all of his political enemies.” Watters continued, “This is only the beginning of politicians putting other politicians and their families in prison. Sad we had to go down this road, but this is where we are and now we have to finish it.” [Fox News, Jesse Watters Primetime, 8/1/23]
    • Watters promised a Trump “revenge tour” where “he’ll be out for blood,” saying it would be “open season.” Watters continued: “You think he's going to let bygones be bygones? He's going to put his men at Justice and Clintons, Obamas, the Pelosis, the Schiffs, and yeah of course, the Bidens, everyone will be legally assaulted. Their family members, providers, their businesses, everything's fair game after this.” [Fox News, Jesse Watters Primetime, 8/2/23]
    • Watters said we need to “run over” climate change protestors. In response to protests at the U.S. Open, he also suggested: “Coco should have smashed some balls at her. That's what I would have done. I would have just started serving balls 120 miles an hour right at these clowns. They're not going to dodge it; they're stuck to the floor. I don't care if you're going to glue yourself, so what? Just shut your mouth. You know what they should've done? They should just tape the guy's mouth shut and let him sit there until everybody goes home.” [Fox News, The Five, 9/8/23]
    • Watters celebrated Trump's threats to execute Gen. Mark Milley and pull NBC's broadcast license. Watters: “The Trump revenge tour is in full swing. He's teasing treason, pulling broadcast licenses. My guys in the desert see it coming. Betting markets in Vegas for the first time have Trump winning and when in Vegas see someone living on the edge of the knife, the smart money moves. The billionaires, the Blacks, the unions, the young voters and the Central Intelligence Agency are all moving against Biden.” [Fox News, Jesse Watters Primetime, 9/26/23]
    • Watters made a bizarre remark about cartoon characters murdering migrants. [Fox News, The Five, 1/3/24]
    • Watters said the unhoused should live in caves: “Out of sight, out of mind.” [Fox News, The Five, 1/25/24]
    • Watters called for an American invasion of Canada: “I want to quench my imperialist thirst.” He said, “Canada. At first I wanted it, and I tried to divide it into two states. And then I realized we'd be adding Montana basically for the Republicans, and electorally, like, a Texas for the Democrats, and I don't like that. But the fact that they don't want us to take them over makes me want to invade.” [Fox News, The Five, 1/7/25] 
    • Watters celebrated ICE raids in schools: “Miller was asked this question by one of these weepy reporters who did one of these Selena Gomez deals where she tries to scare you with tears. She said, why are you doing all these ICE raids at schools? And he goes, if we're doing an ICE raid at school, we're protecting the kids at the school. We're taking out a rapist from the cafeteria. That's how we have to look at this.” [Fox News, The Five, 1/27/25]
    • Watters: Canada “fired the first official shot of the American-Canadian war.” [Fox News, Jesse Watters Primetime, 3/11/25]
    • Watters suggested a military invasion of Panama. “America is expanding,” he said, “You can call this market growing pains. We're also expanding geographically. … Trump's White House is even asking the Pentagon to develop military options for the Panama Canal. The Panamanian military can either work with us or work for us, if you know what I mean.” [Fox News, Jesse Watters Primetime, 3/13/25]
    • Watters fantasized about the homeless being sent to a “mega prison.” Watters: “You know he's going to go to the Olympics in four years and he's going to want to light the torch, Jessica. He's going to want to hold the torch in LA, you're just going to have to face it. It's going to happen. All the homeless are going to be cleared out of LA, they're going to be gone to a mega prison somewhere.” [Fox News, The Five, 3/24/25]
    • Watters: “If we have to burn down a few bridges with Denmark to take Greenland, we're big boys.” Watters argued, “We dropped A-bombs on Japan and now they're our top ally in the Pacific. We may have to burn a bridge to build a big, beautiful new one to the next generation.” [Fox News, Jesse Watters Primetime, 3/28/25]
    • Watters on Democrats being arrested: “You guys have no idea how much fun we're having. This is a dream come true.” Watters said, “They thought they could get away with it because they've been breaking the law and getting away with it for years. That day is over. They think, these people at Biden's Justice Department, we’re afraid of a little controversy? They think Kash, Bongino, Bondi, Pirro, Alina Habba are afraid of what the media is going to say if they arrest a Democrat for breaking the law? You guys have no idea how much fun we're having. This is a dream come true.” [Fox News, The Five, 5/20/25]
    • Watters accused Democrats of “straight up treason” over immigration policy. [Fox News, Jesse Watters Primetime, 7/7/25] 
    • Watters said treating deported immigrants “humanely” is “not high on our list of priorities.” Watters: “The American people don't care that much how we're treating these people before we ship them out of the country back home. We want them treated humanely, don't get me wrong. But this is not high on our list of priorities, how some criminal illegal rapist, trafficker, or wife abuser is being housed for three weeks before they get on a plane back to El Salvador. We have a lot of other priorities, OK? That is not one of them.” [Fox News, The Five, 7/29/25]
    • Watters said it would be “great politics” for Trump to send ICE and the National Guard to cities “city by city, week by week.” Watters: “It's not only good for policy, because obviously saving lives is important, it's great politics. You're going to send ICE guys to cities and you're going to send National Guard to cities, and you're going to go city by city, week by week, and you're going to force the Democrats to defend crime and illegal aliens over and over and over again.” [Fox News, The Five, 8/25/25]
    • Watters cheered on escalation with Venezuela: “Normal people like to see the war on drugs fought as a war.” Watters: “So, just came out today, and I'm sure Jessica saw it, the Democrats are really trying to reconnect with normal people. That was what it says. They’ve lost touch with normal people. Let me just explain how normal people think. When you see a video of a cocaine canoe get smoked out of the water by the U.S. military, normal people say, yeah! Alright? We're like, smoke some narcos, goodbye, light them up, see you later. That's what normal people do. Normal people like to see the war on drugs fought as a war, because it hasn't worked the way before. And a lot of people in America — normal people — have families that have lost people to drugs. So they see this canoe and they see a potential death coming, and we like to light this guy up.” [Fox News, The Five, 9/5/25]
    • Watters after the killing of Charlie Kirk: “It's happening. … They are at war with us. Whether we want to accept it or not, they are at war with us. And what are we going to do about it?” Watters said: “We’ve got trans shooters. We've got riots in L.A. They are at war with us. Whether we want to accept it or not, they are at war with us. And what are we going to do about it? How much political violence are we going to tolerate? And that's the question we’re just going to have to ask ourselves. Now Charlie would want us to put as much pressure on these people as possible. Dana nailed it. This is unacceptable and has to stop, and it has to stop now. And everybody’s accountable, and we’re watching what they’re saying on television and who’s saying what. The politicians, the media, and all these rats out there. … This is a turning point, and we know which direction we’re going.” [Fox News, The Five, 9/10/25]
    • Watters celebrated Trump “going on offense for a change” after bombing a second Venezuelan boat. “The rules of engagement have changed. Donald Trump is super transparent. It's not in the shadows anymore. The Department of Defense is knocking these guys out of the water this time. I'm sure they have the same rigorous checklist, and I'm sure pistol Pete Hegseth, Department of War, is following them to the T, but it shows everybody, especially the narcos, that we’re not playing games anymore, and it’s scaring them and that’s why there’s not a lot of traffic out in the Caribbean anymore.” [Fox News, The Five, 9/16/25]
    • Watters said America needs to bomb or “maybe gas” the United Nations after Trump’s elevator and teleprompter malfunctioned. Reuters later reported that Watters had privately called the U.N. and apologized after the international governing body contacted Fox News. [Fox News, The Five, 9/23/25; Reuters, 9/26/25]
    • After a gunman shot three detainees at a Dallas ICE facility, Watters delivered a monologue full of incendiary claims, including that Democrats’ “strategy” is “using bullets to bully us into political submission.” Watters: “Think about how they’re programming people. They’re at war and they have to win by any means necessary. That ICE is the president's Nazi gestapo and if they don't push back, democracy’s dead.” He continued, “They shot Steve Scalise. They shot Trump once then tried to shoot him again. Burnt down the governor's mansion in Pennsylvania, shot up Christian schools and ICE facilities, shot up an ABC affiliate, planted bombs under a Fox truck, and assassinated Charlie Kirk. … And it's not like men in MAGA hats are shooting up Planned Parenthoods and Hollywood celebrities or journalists or politicians. No one on the right is acting on the language we’re using. On the left, they are. And it’s starting to feel like that's the Democrat strategy — intimidate us into shutting our mouths. They’re using bullets to bully us into political submission. It kind of feels like they know what they’re doing.” Watters concluded, “If they’re not going to look in the mirror and stop triggering their crazies to shoot us, stab us, and blow up our cars, then we’re going to have to crack down. We can’t sit back and not defend ourselves. It's open season on us, and if we’re not going to save ourselves, who else are we going to save?” [Fox News, Jesse Watters Primetime, 9/24/25; CNN, 9/27/25]
    • Watters asked a guest, “When you hear Sen. Murphy say we’re at war, or you know, Walz saying that these guys are the gestapo, do you think that's kind of like a wink and a nod to the crazy base to maybe do something about it?” [Fox News, Jesse Watters Primetime, 9/24/25]
    • Watters: “When you call people in uniform Nazis, gestapo, and slave catchers, what do you think’s going to happen? They’re literally telling each other they’re at war with us.” [Fox News, Jesse Watters Primetime, 9/25/25]
    • Watters in reaction to James Comey’s indictment: “They're just mad Trump is doing to them what they did to them. So, I don't care what you call it. I'm with Greg — revenge, retribution, accountability, who cares? It's happening.” He continued, “I'm enjoying it because these people need to be punished. If someone declares war on you, what are you going to just turn the other cheek? You're right. It is an eye for an eye, and I hope we win.” [Fox News, The Five, 9/26/25]