Fox News personality Jesse Watters, who last got into hot water for a racist segment set in Chinatown, denied on Wednesday that his remarks on the way Ivanka Trump spoke into a microphone were any kind of innuendo.
“During the break we were commenting on Ivanka’s voice and how it was low and steady and resonates like a smooth jazz radio DJ,” Watters said in a statement obtained by TPM. “This was in no way a joke about anything else.”
He posted a similar statement on Twitter on Wednesday morning.
On air I was referring to Ivanka's voice and how it resonates like a smooth jazz radio DJ. This was in no way a joke about anything else.
— Jesse Watters (@jessebwatters) April 26, 2017
Fox News did not respond to questions from TPM about whether it plans to address criticism of Watters’ comments as inappropriate.
Watters did not in fact refer to the quality of Trump’s voice in the original segment on Fox News’ “The Five” broadcast Tuesday night, which opened with a discussion of the chilly reception Trump received at an international women’s summit in Germany when she tried to promote her father as a great advocate for women and families.
“You know, the left says they really respect women and then when given an opportunity to respect a woman like that, they boo and hiss,” Watters said.
He did not specify what he meant by “a woman like that” but appeared to defend Trump’s comments, saying that her father “has probably hired a ton of fathers and mothers and children.”
“So I don’t really get what’s going on here but I really liked how she was speaking into that microphone,” Watters continued with a smirk, making a fist and holding it in front of his face.
