'Hysterical': Jesse Watters Gleefully Imagines Reaction To Mass Deportations Under Trump
Fox News’ Jesse Watters is taking delight in the possible reactions to President-elect Donald Trump’s proposed mass deportations.
On Friday’s broadcast of “The Five,” Watters said the federal government will “lose” states on the issue and predicted “massive clashes” over the deportations, which the Republican Party has pledged to be the “largest” in American history.
“You’re going to have cameras out there making sure that they capture the images of ICE coming along and taking these people away, and they deserve to be taken away. Sometimes you have to do tough stuff,” Watters said, using an acronym for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
“AOC is going to be there tying herself to migrants,” he added, referring to progressive Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) and her support for such people. “It’s going to be hysterical. But sometimes Dad has to do the tough thing — doesn’t make it always look great, but it’s the right thing to do.”
A Fox News spokesperson said that Watters was referring to how he anticipates the left to react to deportations — as in hysteria, not humor.
Under the president-elect’s proposal, authorities would round up millions of migrants in the U.S. and send them to detention camps before expelling them from the country.
Watters’ remarks arrived after Trump, in a Thursday interview with NBC News, said his plan for mass deportations is “not a question of a price tag.”
“It’s not — really, we have no choice,” he said.
“When people have killed and murdered, when drug lords have destroyed countries, and now they’re going to go back to those countries because they’re not staying here. There is no price tag.”
In recent days, multiple Democratic governors have said they’re gearing up for the new Trump administration.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom has called on state lawmakers to convene for a special session in hopes that they can “Trump-proof” progressive laws and policies tied to climate change, immigration and reproductive rights, as he explained to The Associated Press.
In response, the president-elect wrote on his Truth Social platform that Newsom “is trying to KILL” California.
Meanwhile, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul announced efforts to develop “comprehensive plans to address any policy and regulatory threats that may emerge” under Trump.
Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey said that state police would “absolutely not” help Trump with mass deportations.
“Every tool in the toolbox has got to be used to protect our citizens, to protect our residents and protect our states, and certainly to hold the line on democracy and the rule of law as a basic principle,” Healey told MSNBC’s Lawrence O’Donnell.