Jesse Watters Condemned For Claiming Trump’s Mugshot Broadened His Appeal Among Black Americans: ‘My Garbage Man Loved It!’
Fox News’s top-rated prime time host, Jesse Watters, sparked a bevy of angry reactions on Monday night when he again argued that former President Donald Trump’s arrests have made him more popular among Black Americans.
“This isn’t a battle of ideas. There’s no effort at persuasion. This is the removal of a political opponent through brute force, through handcuffs and ballot gimmickry,” Watters declared during his monologue, adding:
But the Democrats’ Soviet-style tactics have alienated their most loyal voting bloc. The mug shot has breathed new life into the Trump campaign and broadened his appeal to black Americans.
Over the weekend, with the help of mugshot merchandise, the Trump campaign raked in over $7 million. Today, my garbage man told me he’s buying mugshot T-shirts for everyone he knows this Christmas.
“The mugshot is up on the side of buildings in the inner city. The 2016 phenomenon is happening all over again. Trump won that election because of a laser like Focus on the Forgotten Man. A bond was formed back then that can never be broken. And there’s a new forgotten man, the Black man,” Watters argued.
The clip was shared online by the cable news monitor Acyn, who also noted that the image of Trump’s mugshot being put up in the “inner city” that Watters showed was actually mocking the former president. After the image was completed it was captioned with the words, “M.A.G.A. My Ass Got Arrested.”
Watters made similar comments last week when he argued, “The mugshot turned Trump into a sympathetic character in Black America. Don’t underestimate the power of a famous mugshot.” In that monologue, Watters cited Martha Stewart and her friendship with the rapper Snoop Dogg as an example of how once a white person is arrested the Black community embraces them. Watters made the comments during a segment in which podcaster Kira Davis said she “called a couple of Black men” and her husband who all agreed the mugshot was “badass.”
Critics were quick to pounce on Watters’s take and called it “profoundly racist.”
“The idea that black Americans have a knee jerk fondness for anyone who has ever been arrested is profoundly racist,” replied Ben Dreyfuss.
Podcaster Jordan Uhl added, “We knew they were going to try to spin this as a positive for Trump in 2024 but I’m not sure anyone predicted them going with ‘Black people love mugshots.’”
Others focused on Watters citing his “garbage man” as his source. “How serendipitous that multiple prime time Fox talking heads have had encounters with anonymous working class black folks who love Trump,” argued former RNC spokesman Tim Miller.
“I’m sorry but the argument that The Mugshot will increasing Black voters’ support for Trump is so insanely racist that i can’t believe people are saying it out loud,” replied Insider political reporter Bryan Metzger.
Below are additional responses to Watters’s argument:
https://twitter.com/daveanthony/status/1696377180635414708
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