Fox News host Jesse Watters made an eyebrow-raising comparison in a segment surrounding Iran’s new Supreme Leader on Tuesday.
“The mullahs spent 45 years denouncing hereditary dynasties, then they just crowned a king: Khamenei Jr.,” Watters, 47, said during his show on Fox News Tuesday night. “He’s 56, no resume, except his last name. He’s like Iran’s Hunter Biden.”
The conservative host often uses Hunter Biden, the son of former President Joe Biden, as a “gotcha” against Democrats and the Biden family.
Hunter, also 56, is frequently ridiculed by conservatives for his “laptop” controversy, his struggle with drug addiction, and over federal gun and tax convictions that he was pardoned for by his father.
The segment on Jesse Watters Primetime focused on Mojtaba Khamenei as Iran’s new “nepo-Ayatollah.” Mojtaba succeeded his father, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, as the nation’s Supreme Leader after he was killed in American and Israeli airstrikes on Feb. 28.
Mojtaba Khamenei has been a highly influential figure within the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) for decades, according to Al Jazeera. The hardline cleric’s mother, wife, and one of his sisters were also killed in the strike that killed his father, the outlet reported.
Mojtaba “can’t close politically,” Watters added, “he didn’t even win a majority vote in the council. So the military had to step in and give him a nudge.”
The MAGA pundit continued his assault on the new Iranian leader, calling him a “trust fund terrorist” whom many of the nation’s clerics did not want to lead the country.
The Middle East has been in turmoil since President Donald Trump launched a surprise aerial bombing campaign with Israel against Iran on Feb. 28.
Aside from Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, several top Iranian officials were killed by American and Israeli initial joint strikes, including the Minister of Defense and the commander of the IRGC.
Eight American service members have died since the conflict began, and about 140 have been injured, the Pentagon confirmed on Tuesday. Upwards of 1,200 people have been killed in Iran, according to Al Jazeera.
Trump, 79, said that “there will likely be more” American casualties before the conflict ends. “That the way it is,” he said in a video address on March 1.
When the fighting will end is unclear, as the president has said it is “very complete, pretty much,” while his Defense Secretary, Pete Hegseth, has stressed that America can go “as long as we need to.”
“Our will is endless,” Hegseth, 45, told reporters on Tuesday. “But what I want the American people to understand is this is not endless.”
The Pentagon has used $5.6 billion worth of advanced munitions over the past 11 days since the strikes began.
The Daily Beast reached out to Fox News for comment.
