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Fox News primetime host admits his own mother joined massive anti-Trump protests

Fox News may be President Donald Trump's favorite network, but one of its top primetime hosts just admitted that even his own family members don't like the president.

The Daily Beast reported Monday that during a segment on the primetime show "The Five," host Jesse Watters told his co-panelists that his own mother attended last weekend's "No Kings" protests. According to TV Insider, Watters' mother, Anne, is a Democrat.

“I know my mom was there,” Watters said. “Can you believe my mom was there? Sometimes I think I was adopted.”

According to organizers, approximately seven million people in all 50 states and in several cities around the country attended one of the roughly 2,700 "No Kings" events on Saturday. The Saturday demonstrations were even larger than the June 14 "No Kings" protests, which brought out approximately five million people.

President Donald Trump appeared to bristle at the "No Kings" label in a Saturday interview with Fox Business host Maria Bartiromo, saying: "They're referring to me as a king. I'm not a king." He later posted two AI-generated videos to his Truth Social platform that evening — one showed him wearing a crown and a royal cloak while holding a sword, spliced together with footage of Democrats kneeling during 2020 racial justice protests while Avenged Sevenfold's "Hail to the King" played in the background. Another video showed him flying a fighter jet over a crowd of protesters while dumping feces on them.

Watters took over former Fox News host Tucker Carlson's primetime spot on the conservative network in 2023, after Carlson was abruptly fired in response to a defamation lawsuit filed by Dominion Voting Systems. Fox ultimately paid $787.5 million to settle the case. After Watters formally took over Carlson's slot, his mother called to wish him well.

"Do not tumble into any conspiracy rabbit holes," Anne Watters said. "We do not want to lose you, and we want no lawsuits. Okay?"

Click here to read the Beast's article in full (subscription required).

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'Stick to the point!' Fox host cuts off guest after he brings up Trump's crude AI video

Fox News host Sandra Smith repeatedly talked over a guest after he mentioned a sophomoric AI-generated video President Donald Trump posted to social media on the day of massive protests against his administration.

The Daily Beast reported Monday that former Biden administration official Dan Koh, who is running as a Democrat for a U.S. House district in Massachusetts, was abruptly interrupted the moment he brought up the video, which shows the 47th president of the United States flying a jet with "King Trump" written on it, dumping feces on a crowd of protesters. The video featured the song "Danger Zone" by Kenny Loggins, though the musician later demanded that his song be removed from the video. The video with the song is still live as of this writing.

A separate video Trump posted showed Trump donning a crown, putting on a royal cloak, and holding up a sword, interspersed with footage of Democrats kneeling during 2020 racial justice protests. The song "Hail to the King" by Avenged Sevenfold can be heard playing in the background of the second video.

Smith had asked him a question about a book by former White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre, and Koh brought up both videos in context of last weekend's "No Kings" protests.

"Look in terms of the Democratic Party, this weekend was a good analogy," Koh said in response to Smith asking if he was "buying what Karine Jean-Pierre is selling."

"I saw Democrats, Republicans, Independents, who were protesting in the millions against a president who was trying to silence us," he continued. "And the analogy was apt when the president uploaded a video of himself in a king hat—"

"—So what, so Dan, sir, are you gonna answer the question?" Smith interjected.

"Yes I will, but please give me a moment," Koh responded. "[The video depicts Trump] literally defecating on people exercising their right to free speech."

"OK, so Dan, let’s go back to the question and stick to the point," Smith insisted.

Watch the exchange below:

— (@)

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'Have I sold my soul to the devil?' Fox News employees' dread revealed in survey

Legal filings resulting of a defamation lawsuit reveal Fox News employees were wringing their hands over their company’s fawning support of President Donald Trump and the Republican Party.

The Guardian collected employees’ statements from a 771-page filing released last week, made public as part of a defamation lawsuit filed against the network by voting technology company Smartmatic. The comments came from an anonymous internal survey of 1,040 employees conducted between August 2020 and early September 2020.

According to the Guardian, one employee said Fox should “change the misogynist, racist, rightwing content”, adding: “Fox News is a propaganda machine for the Republican party NOT a news organization and should be acknowledged as such. It is embarrassing to tell people that I work here as even conservatives know [Fox News Channel] and [Fox Business Network] are biased information sources — not news.”

Other employees complained the news content at the company is “hateful and has made the world a more divided and angry place.”

“I sometimes go home fighting back tears,” another employee said. “This network made me question my morals. Have I sold my soul to the devil?”

Still another employee pointed out that the network should “get out of Trump’s pocket” and realize that its most prominent hosts, Tucker Carlson and Sean Hannity, “are a total embarrassment, peddling BS and conspiracy theories.”

“Many days I feel like I am part of the problem and FNC is contributing to hatred in this country,” the anonymous contributor added.

The complaints of rampant bias continued with another employee ranting: “This company aligns itself with the current administration and has lost its integrity.”

A different survey respondent complained, “I wish there was purpose for what we do other than pushing the brand, ideology and political will of [the president].”

Other employees wished management would crack down on “conspiracy theories and hateful rhetoric” spewed by opinion hosts like hosts like Jeanine Pirro and Lou Dobbs, while one asked management for “a commitment from opinion hosts/producers to only tell viewers the truth, and to bolster their arguments with hard, proven facts given in full context, rather than spin or reckless conjecture that causes harm to real people.”

Smartmatic’s lawsuit against Fox claims Fox “lied and knowingly spread falsehoods about Smartmatic’s role in the 2020 U.S. presidential election.” The company told Guardian reporters that it believes the employee criticisms provide evidence that Fox executives were on notice of internal concerns about what the network was airing. The company has also argued that Fox’s board of directors failed to act on the results of the survey, which it said provided a “stark warning” about the network’s programming.

Newsmax has already settled a similar defamation suit with Smartmatic over the 2020 election.

Read the full Guardian report at this link.

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Fox News employees privately admit their content has made the country 'a worse place'

Private communications between rank-and-file employees at Fox News show that the conservative news network has a significant image problem — even among its own workforce.

In a series of posts to his X account on Tuesday, Guardian media reporter Jeremy Barr pointed out revealing details of Fox News' employees' emails that were recently made public as part of voting machine company Smartmatic's lawsuit against the company. Smartmatic's lawyers maintained that Fox employees demanded assurances from hosts and producers that they would "only tell viewers the truth ... rather than spin or reckless conjecture that causes harm to real people."

"The content we produce has made the world, and especially our country, a worse place," one employee said, according to Barr, who said the responses appear to come from a 2020 company survey.

Barr also discovered new messages from Fox executives warning that President Donald Trump would hold a grudge against the network for calling the 2020 election for then-President-elect Joe Biden. Lachlan Murdoch — who is the chairman of News Corp and son of Fox founder Rupert Murdoch — texted days after the election: "Problem is Trump is going to blame everyone for not winning, especially Fox." In another document, former Fox News managing editor Bill Sammon said in a sworn deposition that he felt he was fired for calling Arizona for Biden before any of the network's main competitors (Biden won Arizona by roughly 11,000 votes).

The documents also confirmed prior reporting that former Fox News host Jeanine Pirro's November 7, 2020 episode was cancelled over fears that she would repeat debunked claims about supposed election fraud. Earlier this year, internal emails showed former Fox News executive David Clark said Pirro was a "reckless maniac" who was "nuts." Pirro later left the network after Trump nominated her to be U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia.

Smartmatic is suing Fox News for $2.7 billion, claiming its hosts made false and defamatory claims about its products alleging that its machines were designed to give Biden an edge. Smartmatic is also suing MyPillow CEO and far-right conspiracy theorist Mike Lindell for his claims about the 2020 election.

The voting machine company's litigation against Fox is still ongoing, and no trial date has yet been set. Fox settled a separate lawsuit with Dominion Voting Systems in 2023 for $787 million.

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'Start with the top': What Fox missed in new report on Jack Smith tracking GOP lawmakers

On Monday, Fox News published a report claiming that former Department of Justice special counsel Jack Smith allegedly surveilled multiple Republican members of Congress as part of his investigation into then-former President Donald Trump. But one veteran journalist on Capitol Hill is arguing Smith had good reason to do so.

According to Fox's reporting, Smith's team was monitoring the phone activity of Sens. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.), Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), Josh Hawley (R-Mo.), Bill Hagerty (R-Tenn.), Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), Cynthia Lummis (R-Wyo.), Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska) and Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.) along with Rep. Mike Kelly (R-Pa.). The lawmakers were part of the Operation: Arctic Frost investigation pertaining to the January 6, 2021 siege of the U.S. Capitol and the "fake elector" scheme that Republicans allegedly perpetrated to flip election results in several key swing states.

"This document shows the Biden FBI spied on 8 of my Republican Senate colleagues during its Arctic Frost investigation into 'election conspiracy,'" wrote Senate Judiciary Committee chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa.) Arctic Frost later became Jack Smith's elector case against Trump."

"BIDEN FBI WEAPONIZATION = WORSE THAN WATERGATE," Grassley added.

But Capitol Hill journalist Jamie Dupree, who has been covering Congress for roughly four decades, justified Smith's actions by pointing to several documented instances of Rep. Kelly being personally handed envelopes of fake elector documents on January 5, 2021. Dupree pointed to surveillance video House Republicans released showing Trump aides putting the envelopes in Kelly's hands.

"Let's start with the top name on this GOP list. Why would the FBI have tracked Rep. Mike Kelly R-PA about Jan. 6? Because his office was involved in Trump's fake electors effort to overturn Joe Biden's victory," Dupree wrote.

"The Jan. 6 tapes also have video of an aide to Rep. Mike Kelly R-PA trying to get those same fake elector documents to Sen. Ron Johnson R-WI on Jan. 6 - with a handoff right in front of the U.S. Supreme Court," he wrote in a separate post.

Dupree documented on his Substack how Wisconsin Republican Party attorney Jim Troupis texted Johnson at 11:36 AM on the day of the insurrection: "We need to get a document on the Wisconsin electors to you for the VP immediately," referring to then-Vice President Mike Pence. Roughly an hour later, Johnson's chief of staff, Sean Riley, texted Pence legislative aide Chris Hodgson, referencing the fake elector documents.

"Johnson needs to hand something to VPOTUS please advise," Riley wrote.

When Hodgson asked what Johnson wanted to give to Pence, Riley told him it was the "alternate slate of electors for MI and WI."

"Do not give that to him," Hodgson wrote.

FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino briefed the senators whose phones were tracked by Smith's team on Monday afternoon, according to Fox. Bongino lamented to Fox that the FBI was "weaponized to track the private communications of U.S. lawmakers for political purposes."

Click here to read Fox's report, and click here to read Dupree's Substack.

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Fox News primetime host compares government shutdown to nagging wife in bizarre rant

Fox News host Jesse Watters recently made a head-scratching analogy on the latest episode of Fox News' "The Five" when defending Republicans' refusal to negotiate with Democrats amid the ongoing federal government shutdown.

According to a Thursday report in the Daily Beast, Watters launched into the analogy after arguing that Democrats — who are the minority party in both chambers of Congress and don't occupy the White House — are "holding the government hostage" by not voting for the government funding bill Republicans crafted by themselves. Watters went on to say that Democrats were asking for too much by pushing Republicans to extend Affordable Care Act (ACA) subsidies in exchange for reopening the government.

“This is like when your wife forces you to buy an expensive car, and then she just wrecks it over and over again and it is always stuck in the shop,” Watters said. “But she wants to go out, right? But she won’t take an Uber!”

“She won’t be seen in an Uber, she calls you cheap, so you know what you do? You sit on the couch, you say, ‘Fine, babe, I’m just gonna sit down, order pizza and watch football," he continued. "You’re playing chicken with the guy that loves sitting down.”

"’You’re the one that needs to go out and shop and get their nails done,'" he added. "This is a war they cannot win."

While the ACA subsidies (which are technically known as "enhanced premium tax credits") won't expire until the end of the calendar year, Democrats have argued that because insurance companies are already calculating rates for the open enrollment period that begins in November, quick action is needed to extend the credits. Should the credits not be renewed, premiums could spike significantly for millions of Americans across the country.

The current shutdown, which began on October 1, is expected to last into next week, as Republicans have continued to refuse to negotiate an extension of the tax credits. Democrats have also dug in and are refusing to vote for the Republican government funding bill in its current form.

Click here to read the Beast's report in its entirety (subscription required).

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Fox host suggests blame for ICE shooting lies with Jimmy Kimmel for not saying 'I'm sorry'

Mediaite reports Fox News anchor Bill Hemmer made a daunting connection between Jimmy Kimmel and a Wednesday shooting at a Dallas ICE facility.

Three people at the facility were shot by a gunman on the roof of an adjacent building on Wednesday morning. Two victims alleged to be detainees were killed, and another was seriously injured, according to CNN.

Authorities confirmed that no officers were injured in the shooting.

Even though the victims on the scene appear to be detainees, FBI Director Kash Patel posted an image on X showing the words: ANTI-ICE” written on bullet casings.

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem blamed the attack on “far-left” rhetoric about US Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

“For months, we’ve been warning politicians and the media to tone down their rhetoric about ICE law enforcement before someone was killed,” Noem said in a post on X. “These horrendous killings must serve as a wake-up call to the far-left that their rhetoric about ICE has consequences.”

But Hemmer took it further, placing blame squarely on a popular late-night comedian who was removed and then returned to the airwaves by ABC after President Donald Trump’s FCC chairman threatened consequences.

“This is why Jimmy Kimmel needed to say, ‘I’m sorry.’ And he didn’t.” Hemmer said. “And he needs to. He needs to call Erika Kirk and talk to her. And he needs to go on his program and say, I had this lovely conversation with this grieving widow. And this is what we discussed. That’s the proper way you manage this. And that did not happen.”

Read the Mediaite report at this link.

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'He stinks': Trump tells Fox to fire pollster after network publishes unflattering survey

Fox News may be President Donald Trump's favorite network, but he's not a fan of its polling operation.

The Daily Beast reported that while he was in the middle of his Thursday interview with Fox News' Martha MacCallum, the Fox host interrupted his claims of bringing back American manufacturing jobs to point out that a majority of Americans disapprove of his leadership on the economy. She cited a Fox News poll conducted earlier this month showing that 52 percent of respondents said Trump had made the economy worse so far in his second term.

"You’ve got unemployment at the highest rate in four years. Groceries made a big jump in the last term," MacCallum said. "You’re looking forward with these plans that you just talked about. When will people feel that?"

"Well, when the factories start opening. I mean, right now we’re building them," Trump said defensively. He then pivoted to attacking the network's pollster.

“Fox polling, I have to tell you, I’ve told you before, the worst polling I’ve ever had, it’s always—I mean, during the election, they had me winning by a little bit, not by a massive amount,” Trump said. “And Fox polling, I’ve told [Fox Corporation owner] Rupert Murdoch, go get yourself a new pollster, because he stinks—and this is for years now.”

Trump's remarks come on the heels of the Federal Reserve's decision to reduce the interest rate by a quarter of a percentage point — something the nation's central bank typically does during an economic downturn. Fed chair Jerome Powell signaled that stagflation (a term used to define periods of high unemployment, high inflation and stagnant GDP growth) could be looming and that the rate cut was done out of "risk management."

Last week, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick pushed back on poor manufacturing job growth under Trump's second term, insisting that Trump's economy wouldn't begin until late 2025 or early 2026. This is despite Lutnick proclaiming that Trump's economy was officially underway earlier this year after stock market indexes posted new record highs.

Click here to read the Beast's full article (subscription required).

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'We're doing it wrong': Pro-Trump Fox host pushes back hard against boat bombings

One Fox News host who is usually on President Donald Trump's side is now speaking out against his controversial new approach to drug trafficking.

Trump has lately been launching missile attacks on boats coming from Venezuela that the administration says are being piloted by drug trafficking gangs trying to smuggle fentanyl into the United States, though the White House has so far not provided any evidence to back up its claims. The bombings have been sharply criticized by both military experts and even Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.)

The Daily Beast reported Wednesday that Lisa Kennedy Montgomery (also known mononymously as "Kennedy") took a different tack than her co-panelists on a recent episode of "The Five." While the panel was largely supportive of Trump's bombings of the boats, Kennedy argued that the president was walking a thin line between fighting drug cartels and blowing up boats full of people who pose no threat to the United States.

"I don’t like it," Kennedy said. "Because all it takes is one fishing boat with a broken radio or people who don’t speak English and you’re killing innocent civilians, and I do not like that."

The Fox News host said that rather than taking a military approach, the Trump administration should instead address drug addiction within the United States. She further noted that the "War on Drugs" of the 1980s and 1990s "failed the first time" around because previous presidents didn't tackle root causes.

"Things can go very badly here. We have not properly addressed demand in this country. That has not gone away," she said. "That is one of the reasons that the cartels proliferated during and after the war on drugs."

"We do have to address why do people — especially kids in this country — want to put things in their body they know can kill them?" She added. "It is terrifying. And instead, we’re doing it wrong."

Click here to read the Beast's full article (subscription required).

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'Garbage reporting': Trump FBI official slams Fox News over report that he may be fired

FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino has pushed back hard against reports that he and Director Kash Patel are on the way out of the bureau, calling Fox News’s coverage “garbage reporting.”

A recent Fox News story claimed that 10 anonymous federal sources told reporter Jacqui Heinrich that Patel’s position is under threat, partly because President Donald Trump is unhappy with how the FBI handled the manhunt for right-wing activist Charlie Kirk’s alleged assassin. Heinrich added that Bongino's days are "likely more numbered" than Patel's due to his clashing with Attorney General Pam Bondi over the Jeffrey Epstein files.

Heinrich said “knives are out” for Patel.

The Daily Beast highlighted Bongino's comments during an appearance on "The Megyn Kelly Show" where he challenged the claim. He asked: “Where are the knives?”

He added: “Who’s holding the knives? The knives are out?”

He listed what he described as recent successes under his and Patel’s leadership. He argued that, if Trump had concerns, he would communicate them directly. He said:

“I don’t mean to get personal, but you know the president — like, do you think he’s the type to not call you?”

“So I’m a little skeptical of garbage reporting about unnamed sources … who are saying, oh my gosh, the knives are out. When everybody on the record is saying, ‘What are you talking about? Everything’s going great.’”

White House Communications Director Steven Cheung issued a statement to the media on Sunday defending Patel’s work.

“Director Patel and his team worked night and day to find this murderer and bring him to justice. Anyone who doubts his resolve and dedication—especially when Charlie was such a close friend to him—simply is using this extremely sad moment in a disgusting act of political gamesmanship. The focus was on catching this killer, and he will face the full wrath of the justice system.”

Patel drew criticism for prematurely announcing a suspect was in custody in the Kirk case, then later saying that information was incorrect.

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'We don't care': Fox host downplays murder of Democratic lawmaker in profane meltdown

One primetime Fox News host appeared to downplay one prominent recent instance of right-wing political violence while exclusively blaming the left for the rise in political violence across the United States.

During the Monday episode of Fox News' "The Five," co-host Greg Gutfeld was arguing that the increase in political violence was one-sided, when liberal co-panelist Jessica Tarlov asked him about the murder of former Minnesota House Speaker Melissa Hortman (D), who was murdered along with her husband Mark in June. The alleged murderer also shot Minnesota state senator Jon Hoffman (D) and his wife, Yvette — though they survived – and had a "hit list" of 45 other political leaders, all of whom were Democrats. Sen. Hoffman was shot nine times, while his wife was shot eight times.

"You want to talk about Melissa Hortman? Did you know her name before it happened? None of us did," he said. "None of us were spending every single day talking about Mrs. Hortman. I never heard of her until after she died!"

"So she doesn't matter?" Tarlov asked.

"Don't play that bulls--- with me," Gutfeld said after a pause. "You know what I'm saying is, there was no demonization, amplification of that woman before she died. It was a specific crime against her by someone who knew her."

"The fact of the matter is, the 'both sides' argument, not only doesn't fly, we don't care," he added. "We don't care about your both sides argument. That s--- is dead. There is no cognitive dissonance on our side."

The conversation about political violence comes in the wake of last week's murder of far-right activist Charlie Kirk. While the alleged shooter was registered non-partisan, he was raised by Republican parents and his grandmother told the Daily Mail that she wasn't aware of a single Democrat in the shooter's family. Messages on bullets found in the alleged shooter's rifle have been linked to obscure memes and niche video game references. No ideological motive has yet been confirmed.

absolutely repugnant, gutfeld completely dismisses the assassination of melissa hortman, calls it a "bull shit" example of political violence
— Andrew Lawrence (@ndrew.bsky.social) 2025-09-15T22:06:48.197Z

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