Trumpy Fox News host Jesse Watters had to be escorted away from Queen Camilla after breaching protocol with a joke about gun violence before a grand state dinner at the White House.
Camilla and her husband, King Charles were in D.C. on a charm offensive to rescue the “special relationship” after a series of transatlantic spats.
Watters was among those introduced to the royal couple before Tuesday’s banquet, but was swept away after an ill-judged remark about gun violence in the capital, he revealed on Wednesday night’s episode of The Five.
“We do the walkthrough where you do the introduction and then... The king had no idea who I was. And so I said, ‘I’m on Fox and I have two shows.’ And he goes, ‘Well, they must really love you here.’
“And so we go down, and there’s the queen, and I said, ‘Well, how was the beehive?’ And she goes, ‘It was very good. No one got stung.’
“And then I said, ‘Well, you know, it was Washington D.C., you know, if the bees don’t get you, the guns will.’
“And then this woman just starts pulling me away from them.
“I don’t know what I was saying. Ugh. I started mumbling.”
Charles’s D.C. tour included a speech on Capitol Hill and a tour of the newly expanded White House beehives, as well as a garden party at the British ambassador’s residence.
According to the Metropolitan Police Department, gun violence in the District of Columbia reached a 30-year low in 2024.
But President Donald Trump insisted that the capital was “lawless,” as he took control of the police force last August and sent in the National Guard, to widespread condemnation.
At a press conference, he said it was “a historic action to rescue our nation’s capital from crime, bloodshed, bedlam, and squalor and worse. This is liberation day in D.C., and we’re going to take our capital back.”
Two weeks later, he said, “The numbers are down like we wouldn’t believe, but we believe it.”
Watters’ faux pas came three days after a gunman rushed the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner at the Washington Hilton, allegedly planning to kill Trump with the ambition of killing Trump and Cabinet officials.
Fellow Fox News host Greg Gutfeld was also at the swanky royal dinner and was asked on Wednesday night’s panel what he thought of the king.
During his answer, he made a crass joke about Queen Camilla. “He was nice,” Gutfeld began. “I predicted exactly what the conversation was. I go to [his wife Elena Moussa], I go, 10 to one, Trump looks at Charles and goes, ‘Oh, here, this guy, he’s great. He’s got the No. 1 show on late night. You’ll love him.’
“And I walk in and Trump goes, ‘Ah, there he is. He’s got the No. 1 show late.’ And the king was like, ‘Oh, do you? Where is this late show that you talk about?’
“And I go, ‘It’s on Fox.’ ‘I see. It’s on Fox. Very good.’”
He said you he didn’t have much time with the king and added, “and then I took off with Camilla. Yeah, just to horse around.”
The Daily Beast has contacted Fox News for comment.
