Fox News host Jesse Watters dished out some odd advice Monday for Democratic men like Sen. Chuck Schumer: Don’t have a woman’s physique. How he knows this? He’s seen a top Republican somewhat disrobed.
On The Five, where Watters has been known to discuss what he thinks is masculine and what isn’t, he claimed that an answer to Democratic woes at the ballot box lies at the gym.
“I was at a resort a little while back and I saw [Senate Majority Leader John] Thune at the gym. The man is jacked and the guy’s in great shape, and he lifts hard, too,” he admired of the 64-year-old.
“You look at Schumer—and he’s built like a woman. Men do not want to be led by the party of women. Men want to be led by other men,“ said Watters, who last summer knocked Kamala Harris as a “frightened woman.”
“Working out actually makes you more masculine. It increases your testosterone... It makes you more competitive, happier, healthier, all that stuff. Being around other guys is also good for you,” Watters went on. “And women are more attracted to guys that lift, and that’s just scientifically proven.”
In response to a column arguing that joining gyms can bring about favorable political outcomes for Democrats, Watters said, “You can’t campaign at the gym; Democrats have to go into the gym. They have to work out."
“So,” he continued, “Democrats need to become men, and then they can persuade men. But they have to lift first. I’m serious.”
Watters then incorporated into his pitch a quotation from, of all people, poet Maya Angelou.
“People will forget what you said. People will forget what you did. But people will never forget how you made them feel,” he said.
“People don’t like how they feel around Democrats because Democrats don’t like the way they feel,” Watters concluded. “And if they lifted, they would feel better, and then everyone around them would feel better.”
In his eponymous primetime show later Wednesday night, Watters reiterated his point.
“Don’t hand out fliers outside of Equinox,” he told Democrats. “Go inside and lift.”
One way Democratic donors and strategists have been working to improve their lot with young men—mainly online—is though a $20 million effort called “Speaking with American Men: A Strategic Plan,” which aims to “study the syntax, language and content that gains attention and virality in these spaces.”
“Above all,” it says, “we must shift from a moralizing tone.”
