The White House is blasting Fox News’ Jesse Watters for his comments about “Arab Americans and about the Muslim world.”
In a statement to Mediaite on Thursday, White House deputy press secretary Andrew Bates said, “These hateful lies about ‘Arab Americans and…the Muslim world’ highlight the urgency of President Biden’s work to ensure hate has no safe harbor in America, and why he committed to the first national anti-Islamophobia strategy in our history.”
“These unacceptable remarks come just weeks after the heartbreaking killing of a 6-year-old Palestinian-American child, and during a spike in threats against Muslim and Arab Americans,” he continued.
His statement referred to the death of six-year-old Wadea Al-Fayoume, who was stabbed 26 times allegedly because he was Muslim.
Finally, Bates added, “Fox News owes an apology to every single viewer for this sickening attack on the rights and dignity of their fellow Americans. President Biden will always stand up against Islamophobia, antisemitism, and all forms of hate. Fox News should learn from his example.”
Bates’ statement came after Watters delivered a message “about Arab Americans and about the Muslim world” on Wednesday.
“We – and when I say we, I mean, the West and Western technology – have created the Middle East. We made them rich. We got that oil out of the ground. Our military protects all of these oil shipments flying around the world, making them rich. We fund their military. We respect their kings. We kill their terrorists, OK? But we’ve had it. We’ve had it with them,” Watters said.
He went on:
“Obama, Trump, now Biden, have tried to get the heck out of that stupid desert. Just as we’re about to get out — because we have this great balance of power we’re arranging — these crazy Muslim fanatics come in and massacre over a thousand of our allies and hold Jewish people hostage, hold Americans hostage.”
Watch the video below:
Fox News' Jesse Watters: "I wanna say something about Arab Americans and about the Muslim world."
— Justin Baragona (@justinbaragona) November 1, 2023
Yep, it is pretty much as bad as you think, including Watters saying "we have had it with them" and "we can't live in a country like that." pic.twitter.com/RNUCS3WpeC
Finally, Watters said, “And so, 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. When you rip down posters of the hostages like that… absolutely not.”