The day after Republicans underperformed expectations in this year’s midterm elections, Fox News host Jesse Watters offered an explanation: President Joe Biden is just too likable.
“I can’t believe John Fetterman won!” Watters began, making clear his surprise at the Democrat’s defeat of the Trump-endorsed Mehmet Oz, who Watters said was untrustworthy and generally “not a great candidate.”
The Fox host then criticized Republicans for lagging behind their competitors in the early vote tally.
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“There is no Republican early vote strategy. Can anybody tell me what that is? Republicans vote on Election Day. Democrats vote for five weeks,” Watters said, reflecting what voting data for the midterms tended to show. “So, there’s this mass mobilization campaign that’s underway in these early voting states and Republicans are sitting it out.”
Watters, one of several Fox News stars who confidently predicted a strong GOP showing, then sought to draw what he viewed as some positives from Tuesday’s results, like 2020 election-denier Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) edging out Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes.
“[Republicans] are going to have the House,” he predicted, “and it is not going to be the biggest margin of all time. It’s going to be bigger than they say it is right now.”
“This was a red wave if you’re looking at Florida,” he continued, before bringing up Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacy Abrams’ loss to incumbent Republican Brian Kemp and Beto O’Rourke’s failed bid for governor of Texas. But Watters ultimately acknowledged how Democrats and President Biden appear to have emerged from the midterms in a good spot.
“There’s just not the hatred for Joe Biden that there is for Barack Obama and for the Clintons. There’s not a ‘hate Biden’ vote that’s out there,” he said, adding that there is for Trump as well. “People just don’t feel the same passion against the guy that they also feel for other people.”
Watters would go on to lament Democratic advantages among unmarried women, young voters, and among urban populations more broadly. Voters between the ages of 18 and 29, for instance, backed Democrats by a margin of 63 percent to 35 percent, one exit poll found.
