Jesse Watters has blamed the Reflecting Pool disaster on his usual suspects.
The Fox News host, 47, took a page out of President Donald Trump’s playbook and blamed the damage to the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool on Democrats—without providing evidence.
Watters went on an impassioned rant about the pool on Thursday’s The Five after co-host Greg Gutfeld asked him, “Has patriotism become synonymous with Trump, and that’s why patriotism is so hard for the Dems?”
“If you visit America, you love it. Have you seen what’s going on in D.C.? This is the biggest fair in American history,” he said. “I don’t know why anybody can’t get down with this.”
“So while that’s going on there, the Democrats are ripping up the reflecting pool,” he said.
“Stop it!” his co-host, Jessica Tarlov, hit back.
“A couple of days ago, a lot of people at this table pooh-poohed the idea that you guys would vandalize the pool. But now we have hard evidence, reported by the New York Times and the Park Police, because I’ve looked at all the reports.”
But Watters apparently didn’t read well enough into those reports. Though the National Park Police indeed released documents, first reported by The New York Times, about the damage to the pool, the agency never identified the perpetrators.
In a two-page declaration, NPS official Frank Lands said that, on June 9, U.S. Park Police responded to a report of damage to the reflecting pool, “including a caulk over the foam sealant that was cut with a sharp knife or razor and destruction of delaminating surface material.” He also said about 70 fence post tops were tossed into the 2,000-foot-long pool
Lands did not declare the damage a result of vandalism, and did not identify anyone who could have been involved.
Fox News did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Watters echoed earlier statements made by Trump himself, who has repeatedly blasted supposed vandals for tearing up his pet project. An unsightly algal bloom and peeling paint have joined forces to humiliate the 80-year-old president.
“But I saw it. They cut it. They cut it very violently. The same thing with the floor. They cut it, and then they lifted it, and they pulled it. And that’s what it is,” Trump previously claimed.
The president doubled down on Wednesday, telling NATO chief Mark Rutte that “thugs” took aim at the pool.
“They just told me a little while ago,” Trump told Rutte. “Six have been arrested, and like six or seven are under investigation. They had pictures and everything else. They went to the bottom, and it’s not a paint job, it’s very expensive, it’s not rubber—but it’s like rubber—and they went down with probably a box cutter or a very sharp razor of some kind or knife, and they cut, and then they started ripping it up.”
“You know, one of the guys, he’s a member or a big player to ActBlue,” Trump added, referencing the Democratic Party fundraising platform. “He’s a big Hillary supporter, he’s a big supporter of Sleepy Joe Biden.”
Watters has his own eyebrow-raising history with vandalism. In 2022, the Fox News star stirred controversy when he claimed on The Five that he flattened his future wife’s tires so that she would hitch a ride with him.
“When I was trying to get Emma (DiGiovine) to date me, first thing I did, let the air out of her tires,” he said at the time. “She couldn’t go anywhere, she needed a lift. I said ‘Hey you need a lift?’ She (got) right into the car.”
Gutfeld, his co-host, later forced him to clarify that it was a joke.
“That was a joke,” Watters later said. “I never deflated anyone’s tires.”
