Fox News’ Jesse Watters was relentlessly mocked on social media this week after he said — in quite the dramatic way — that his marriage would end if he found out his wife, Emma, had secretly voted for Democratic nominee Vice President Kamala Harris.
During a roundtable discussion on Wednesday’s episode of “The Five,” Watters and his fellow co-hosts and panelists discussed a new ad released in support of Harris and her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, that reminds women that their vote is private — and that they should choose their preferred candidate regardless of how their husbands may be voting.
The ad, narrated by Oscar winner Julia Roberts, was created by evangelical group Vote Common Good.
“In the one place in America where women still have a right to choose, you can vote any way you want, and no one will ever know,” Roberts says in a voice-over as a woman in the ad is seen marking her ballot for Harris and Walz.
“If I found out Emma was going into the voting booth and pulling the lever for Harris, that’s the same thing as having an affair,” he said, as members of the panel joined him in laughter. “That violates the sanctity of our marriage. What else is she keeping from me? What else has she been lying about?”
“Why would she have to lie to you, why would she lie to you? [Have you] threatened her? Why would she lie to you?” co-host Jeanine Pirro pressed.
“Why would she do that and then vote Harris?” Watters continued. “Why would she say she was voting (for former President Donald Trump) and then voting Harris. And I caught her, and then she said, ‘I lied to you for the last four years.’”
“It’s over, Emma!” Watters added. “That would be D-Day.”
People on X, formerly Twitter, were not impressed that Watters compared his wife hypothetically voting for Harris to infidelity — or the historic day Allied troops landed in Nazi-occupied France.
“Here’s Jesse Watters saying he thinks his wife voting for @KamalaHarris is the same as having an affair—it ‘violates the sanctity of our marriage,’” Mike Nellis, former senior adviser to Harris, wrote on X. “I don’t care what type of marriage you have—traditional, modern, whatever—that’s not healthy. And it’s weird.”
“Republicans are obsessed with controlling women,” wrote another X user.
Watters has come under fire for his sexist takes before.
He was widely criticized in 2022 for sharing the creepy way he wooed his now-wife, a younger producer who was working on his show, while he was married to another woman.
“When I was trying to get Emma to date me, the first thing I did was let the air out of her tires,” Watters told his co-hosts. “She couldn’t go anywhere. She needed a lift, I said, ‘You need a lift?’ She hopped right in the car.”
Check out more responses to Watters’ remarks on “The Five” below:
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