Yahoo News Jesse Watters Apologizes for ‘Jinxing’ McCarthy by Calling Him ‘Speaker’
As Republicans failed for the second straight day to select a speaker of the House, Fox News host Jesse Watters came to the realization that he may have acted prematurely in prior interviews by implying that Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) would surely land that job.
“This doesn’t happen often, but tonight Primetime needs to issue an apology,” Watters explained. “It appears we may have gotten a little ahead of ourselves.”
Watters then aired three clips from last October, November and December in which he began interviews with McCarthy by calling him “speaker” or “soon-to-be speaker.”
“Yeah, I may have jumped the gun a little bit,” Watters admitted, adding that he’s “sorry” for putting a jinx on the congressman, who had been the odds-on favorite for the post—given Republicans could win back control of the House in the first place, which they only narrowly did.
“The voting process for House speaker isn’t as cut and dry as we thought it would be. And, quite frankly, it’s been a little messy.”
As of Wednesday night, six ballots have come and gone with McCarthy unable to wrangle enough votes to secure the gavel. In the sixth and most recent vote, a group of 20 Republicans opted for Rep. Byron Donalds (R-FL) instead of McCarthy, while Rep. Victoria Spartz (R-IN) voted “present.”
In not-too-serious fashion, Watters then suggested that, since “we’re nominating everybody,” Paul Pelosi or Sam Bankman-Fried might be a good fit for the job the former, in part because the speakership “probably comes with a personal driver,” an apparent dig at his recent DUI arrest.
Bankman-Fried, he joked, could get members in line by “drop[ping] a couple backpacks off in the right locations.”
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