It wouldn’t seem like much of a stretch to think that Jesse Watters is more interested in delivering juicy stories wrapped in jaw-dropping headlines than in reporting the news. And, as The Daily Show correspondent/guest host Desi Lydic pointed out, Watters’ bias is showing big time.
Watters, who Lydic describes as a “human polo shirt,” has had a lot of smack to talk about Joe Biden and his son, Hunter, over the past several weeks—interspersed with many glowing descriptions of Alexander Smirnov, the FBI informant who supplied authorities with key details about alleged improprieties on the part of the current president and his son.
“Highly credible,” “a guy with impeccable credentials,” and “the highly credible, multilingual, extremely trustworthy, longtime confidential FBI informant” are just a few of the ways Watters helped to build up the veracity of the intel Smirnov shared with FBI officials. But last week, Smirnov was indicted by DOJ special counsel David Weiss for making false statements against the Bidens—a misstep that could see the 43-year-old facing up to 25 years behind bars.
“Wow! Highly credible, multilingual, proficient at Excel, a good tipper, a generous lover, always puts the seat down,” Lydic teased of Watters’ obsequiousness toward Smirnov. “This guy is rock-solid. Bulletproof. Impeachment case closed!”
But rather than correct the record, Watters instead chose to double down on just how stand-up a guy Smirnov allegedly is, despite the fact that he has suspected ties to Russian intel, who are believed to have fed Smirnov the lies about the president in the first place.
Lydic figured that “surely Jesse—a responsible journalist—is taking it upon himself to apologize and make the necessary corrections.” Instead, Watters told Fox News viewers that “everyone who blows the whistle on the Biden crime syndicate, or is connected to it, has been arrested,” that “Biden is a smooth operator,” and that “the Biden family has never paid a price” for any of their alleged misdeeds. “You’ve got to hand it to the big guy: He’s getting away with it,” Watters added.
Lydic didn’t quite see it that way.
“That was an interesting way to say ‘I’m sorry. I made a mistake,’” she joked. “But I personally would not have responded to this by accusing Biden of arresting his enemies, but hey—every news outlet has different standards. Some issue corrections; Jesse issues an all-caps Facebook comment.”
Ultimately, Lydic decided that “that’s the beauty of free speech: you can say whatever you want out of your big, dumb mouth.”
