Amanda Terkel stalking In 2009, while working on ''The O'Reilly Factor'', Watters and his cameraman followed journalist Amanda Terkel in her car for two hours while she drove to
Winchester, Virginia for vacation, and then asked her several questions about an article she had written beforehand that was critical of
Bill O'Reilly. In May 2016, while at the
White House Correspondents Dinner journalists' reception,
The Huffington Post's
Ryan Grim approached Watters while recording and asked him to apologize to Terkel. Watters at first said he would apologize, before then saying he wouldn't, adding, "I ambushed her because O'Reilly told me to get her because she said some bad shit." Video of the incident shows Watters then grabbing Grim's phone and throwing it on the floor, later grabbing it again and putting it in his pocket. The two reporters end up in a shoving match as Grim attempted to recover his phone. Watters would later comment on the incident while on ''The O'Reilly Factor'', stating, "I was at this party trying to enjoy myself. This guy came up to me. He starts putting it in my face."
Chinatown segment In October 2016, Watters was criticized for a segment of ''Watters' World'' that was widely considered
racist toward
Asian Americans. While in New York City's
Chinatown, Watters asked
Chinese Americans whether they knew
karate (a
Japanese martial art), whether he should bow before greeting them, or if their watches had been stolen. Throughout the segment, the 1974 song "
Kung Fu Fighting" plays in the background, and the interviews are interspersed with references to
martial arts and clips of Watters getting a foot massage and playing with
nunchucks. Numerous other lawmakers and journalists, including US Senator
Mazie Hirono and US Representative
Judy Chu, also condemned Watters. The segment was also criticized by the
Asian American Journalists Association, which issued a statement saying, "We should be far beyond tired, racist stereotypes and targeting an ethnic group for humiliation and objectification on the basis of their race." On October 5, 2016, Watters tweeted what
Variety's Will Thorne called a "
non-apology" about the segment. In the two tweets, Watters stated that "My man-on-the-street interviews are meant to be taken as tongue-in-cheek and I regret if anyone found offense. ... As a political humorist, the Chinatown segment was intended to be a light piece, as all ''Watters' World'' segments are."
John Podesta comments In January 2017, Watters faulted
John Podesta,
Hillary Clinton's campaign manager, for the theft of Podesta's emails by Russian hackers, saying, "What happened was John Podesta gave his password to a hacker. And guess what his password was. 'Password.' It's a true story. His password was 'password.'" The fact-checking website
PolitiFact rated Watters' claim "False." In response to the criticism, Watters was not on the show for two days that week.
QAnon comments In July 2020, Jesse Watters' comments during his show about the
conspiracy theory movement,
QAnon, drew public criticism. Watters' statements on the group included, "they've also uncovered a lot of great stuff when it comes to
Epstein and it comes to the
deep state. I never saw Q as dangerous as
antifa." Following the outcry over his commentary, Watters released a statement that said: "I mentioned the conspiracy group QAnon, which I don't support or believe in. My comments should not be mistaken for giving credence to this fringe platform."
Dr. Anthony Fauci comments Watters attended the
Turning Point USA's
AmericaFest conference in December 2021, where he advocated for attendees to aggressively confront and question
National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Director Dr.
Anthony Fauci about his alleged funding of
gain-of-function research at the
Wuhan Institute of Virology, saying, "Now you go in for the kill shot. The kill shot? With an ambush? Deadly. Because he doesn't see it coming." Dr. Fauci responded by calling Watters' remarks "awful" and stating that Watters "should be fired on the spot". Fox News Channel indicated its continued support for Watters, saying he "was using a metaphor" and that his comments "had been twisted completely out of context".
Comments about the Muslim world and Arab-Americans During the November 2, 2023, broadcast of
The Five, Watters stated during a segment about the
Gaza war protests that "We've had it with them," referring to the
Muslim world. He added, "If you are an Arab American in this country and you ripped down posters of Jewish hostages, American hostages, no! No, no, no. Someone is gonna get punched in the face." This statement was condemned by White House spokesperson
Andrew James Bates, saying, "These unacceptable remarks come just weeks after the heartbreaking
killing of a 6-year-old Palestinian-American child... Fox News owes an apology to every single viewer for this sickening attack on the rights and dignity of their fellow Americans."
Kamala Harris comments During the August 27, 2024, broadcast of
The Five, Watters commented on Vice President and 2024 Democratic Party presidential nominee
Kamala Harris: "We don't know who she is. We don't know what she believes. She's going to get paralyzed in the Situation Room while the generals have their way with her." Watters received immediate criticism for this comment, including from his panel colleagues
Jeanine Pirro and
Dana Perino. A day later, Watters addressed the criticism on-air, stating his comments were misconstrued as being sexual. He further stated he was simply "expressing my opinion that VP Harris' current leadership style could be an issue if elected."
Comments on masculinity Watters criticized former President
Joe Biden for licking ice cream in public as "a grown man". He has instructed men on how they should wave and belittled those who grocery shop with their wives. In September 2024, Jesse Watters was criticized for comments he made on
The Five regarding
Tim Walz, the
Governor of Minnesota and a running mate of the
US Presidential candidate Kamala Harris, who had shared a photo of himself drinking a
milkshake with a paper straw. Watters mocked the image as an example of Walz's lack of masculinity because he used a straw, which he claimed made women not like Walz, because women like masculinity. He said that asking for a "vanilla shake" instead of a "vanilla ice cream shake" also makes men look weak. The remarks sparked backlash, with critics accusing Watters of promoting outdated gender norms and using a trivial moment to push political commentary. Governor Walz responded by defending the post and encouraging a focus on real issues rather than manufactured culture wars. In April 2025, Watters said that "When you sit behind a screen all day, it makes you a woman, Studies have shown this," and as one of the panelists cackled, he repeated the claim; while debating a MAGA author's claim that President
Donald Trump's tariffs will reverse a crisis of masculinity in the U.S. by bringing back jobs requiring physical strength. He also said, "If you're out working ... you are around other guys; you're not around HR ladies and lawyers. That gives you
estrogen".
The Five co-host
Jeanine Pirro pushed back, saying, "You sit behind a screen". The incident sparked backlash across social media. During an interview with the
Premier of Ontario,
Doug Ford, Watters said, "You say that Americans don't have a problem with Canadians, and we don't, but it seems like you have a problem with us. Because if I were a citizen of another country and I were a neighbor of the United States, I would consider it a privilege to be taken over by the United States of America. That's what everybody else in the world wants — American citizenship. For some reason, that's repellant to you Canadians, and I find that personally offensive."
Deportation of Kilmar Abrego Garcia Watters backed the
Trump administration's claim that the illegally deported Maryland man is a terrorist, saying that Garcia wearing a
Chicago Bulls hat "means you're
MS-13" and you "hang around with high-ranking gangsters." saying "Garcia is a Bulls fan, but he's from
El Salvador and he lives in Maryland, not Chicago,". He added, "The Bulls lost 60 games in 2019, so why the hat? Can Garcia name anyone on the team? Anyone on any Bulls team besides Jordan? Everyone from El Salvador knows what it means when you wear a Bulls hat; it means you're MS-13. When you're in
Compton, you don't accidentally wear red and say: 'Oh, I didn't know red was
Bloods.' If you're a Latin American illegal alien in
Maryland, you don't accidentally wear Chicago Bulls gear and hang around with high-ranking gangsters from MS-13." He also ridiculed the idea that Abrego Garcia fled El Salvador because his family's pupusa shop had been shaken down by local gang members, resulting in increasing threats of violence.
Calling for the physical destruction of the UN While reviewing difficulties Donald Trump had navigating the
United Nations, Watters offhandedly offered the following: "What we need to do is either leave the U.N. or we need to bomb it," Watters said. "Maybe gas it ... we need to destroy it." Sources indicate that he apologized for the statement. ==Personal life==