Dealing with the aftermath of Fox News bigwigs Roger Ailes and Bill O’Reilly being hit with numerous allegations of sexual harassment, Fox News’ brand has been seriously damaged, fairly or unfairly.
Instead of helping to heal the image problem, Fox’s The Five host, formerly of The O’Reilly Factor fame, Jesse Watters, just added fuel to the fire by making an apparent oral sex joke about First Daughter Ivanka Trump on Tuesday night.
“Yeah, it’s funny, the Left says they’ll really respect women and then when given an opportunity to respect a woman like that they boo and hiss,” said Watters, after watching a clip of Ivanka getting booed by a room full of women at a Germany summit. “So I don’t really get what’s going on here.”
Then Watters added the comment he probably wishes he could take back: “But, uh, I really like the way she was speaking into that microphone.”
Watters has denied the remark was sexual in nature, explaining that he was referring to “Ivanka’s voice and how it resonates like a smooth jazz radio DJ.”
Not many bought Watters’ excuse and the Fox host has been taking some serious heat for the remark. The Washington Post, Raw Story, The New York Daily News and Yahoo are just some of the outlets covering the apparent sex joke.
Online, Watters has been getting hammered, too:
Watters was best-known for his comical man-on-the-street segment during The O’Reilly Factor before landing his own Saturday night show on Fox. He made the Ivanka comment just two days into his gig on the The Five, replacing Eric Bolling.