Watters shared some of the text messages sent to him from his mom on his Tuesday night broadcast. The 40-year-old anchor is a co-host on The Five and host of Watters’ World on the Fox News Channel.
“Jesse—stop making sweeping statements about individuals you don’t know. YOU are sounding like Joe McCarthy—an individual you clearly need to undertake some research about! Weren’t you a history major??” Watters’ mom messaged him.
McCarthy was a Republican senator who became nationally known for his highly publicized pursuit of an alleged Communist conspiracy in the U.S. McCarthy spent nearly five years attempting to expose left-wing “loyalty risks” in the federal government and even attacked the Army for supposedly harboring communists.
In another text, his mom advised him to pull back from his inflammatory remarks on “the Squad,” which consists of freshman Democratic lawmakers Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, Rashida Tlaib of Michigan and Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts.
“I hope your Squad criticism can be just a tad more measured today…perhaps try not to communicate such disdain for diversity,” his mom wrote. “Please don’t sound like an old white guy who lacks understanding of otherness. Love you so.”
The four congresswomen were the focus of several attacks from President Donald Trump and his Republican allies. Trump once falsely implied that they weren’t American (Omar immigrated to the U.S. as a child from Somalia) and suggested they “go back and help fix the totally broken and crime-infested places from which they came.”
This is not the first time that Watters has shared some of the text messages from his mother, Anne Watters, who is a progressive Democrat. The bit has become somewhat of a routine on his show, under the segment title “Mom Texts.”
In another message, Anne Watters told her son she doesn’t think he had “any idea how strident and screaming you are! You are struggling honeybun!” That message prompted laughter from Watters’ co-hosts.
Last year, Watters shared text messages from his mother begging him not to take the chief of staff position in the Trump administration, if it is ever offered to him.
When asked about the “Mom Texts” segment by The Philadelphia Inquirer, Anne Watters joked that “quite obviously my opposition to Jesse’s politics and delivery can be fierce. Indeed, he has always been a challenge.”
She added, “But this next statement should be self-evident: I love him constantly and unconditionally.”
