The White House chided Fox News and said it should apologize over comments that host Jesse Watters made on The Five about Arab Americans.
In the segment on Wednesday, Watters was addressing “Arab Americans and the Muslim world,” then told viewers “we’ve had it with them.” He went on to specifically cite Arab Americans who rip down posters of Jewish and American hostages.
White House Deputy Press Secretary Andrew Bates said in a statement, “These hateful lies about ‘Arab Americans and…the Muslim world’ highlight the urgency of President Biden’s work to ensure hate has no safe harbor in America, and why he committed to the first national anti-Islamophobia strategy in our history.
“These unacceptable remarks come just weeks after the heartbreaking killing of a 6 year old Palestinian-American child, and during a spike in threats against Muslim and Arab Americans,” Bates said. “Fox News owes an apology to every single viewer for this sickening attack on the rights and dignity of their fellow Americans. President Biden will always stand up against Islamophobia, antisemitism, and all forms of hate. Fox News should learn from his example.”
Fox News has not commented on the White House criticism.
Watters said in the segment, “I want to say something about Arab Americans and the Muslim world. …We, and when I say ‘we’ I mean the west and western technology, have created the Middle East. We made them rich. We got that oil out of the ground. Our military protects all of these oil shipments, flying around the world, making them rich. We fund their military, we respect their kings. We kill their terrorists. OK? But we’ve had it. We’ve had it with them.”
“Obama, Trump, now Biden, have tried to get the heck out of that stupid desert. Just as we’re about to get out, because we have this great balance of power we’re arranging, these crazy Muslim fanatics come in and massacre over a thousand of our allies and hold Jewish people hostage, hold Americans hostage. And so, if you are an Arab American in this country and you ripped down posters of Jewish hostages, American hostages. No. No. No. No. Someone is gonna get punched in the face. When you rip down posters of the hostages like that, this is, absolutely not.”
Watters was not on The Five on Thursday, as he was in California for an event, co-host Dana Perino told viewers.
