Fox News host Jesse Watters humorously suggested that former President Donald Trump should appoint colleague Sean Hannity to the Federal Communications Commission if he wins, so Hannity could “knock heads together” and “yank licenses” from other cable networks.
In recent weeks, Trump has intensified his angst against the legacy news media following several instances of phony or exaggerated reports, taking him out of context, skewing debates, and selectively editing segments with Vice President Kamala Harris to make her sound better.
He has also said that broadcast licenses should no longer be free and that outlets should be subject to losing them if they continue to mislead the public.
Watters proposed his own idea for how Trump could execute his plan if he wins the election, suggesting a restructuring of the FCC that would include promoting his Fox News colleague Hannity.
Co-host Greg Gutfeld mocked Comedy Central’s Saturday Night Live for what he called “comedy welfare for the Democratic candidate” after the show featured Vice President Kamala Harris this past weekend.
Watters echoed FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr’s criticism of SNL for violating the “equal time” rule, which mandates that licensed broadcasters provide equal airtime to both political candidates to prevent bias ahead of an election.
[Harris] should’ve done [Joe] Rogan, and she did this instead, and that tells you everything about the Harris campaign, and the symbolism of breaking the law to hurt Trump tells you what they’ve done and what they are going to do if he wins,” Watters said during a Monday segment on “The Five.”
“They should’ve invited Donald Trump. It would’ve been funnier, would’ve gotten better ratings, but they’re willing to sacrifice their mission, which is laughter and profits, to hurt Trump,” he continued.
“I don’t really think it matters because it’s too late. It’s not like this is going to change anyone’s mind, but it shows you that Trump has to run through the rigged system to win, whether it’s ’60 Minutes’ or the biased debate moderators [at ABC’s presidential debate] or anything like that. And when he wins, it’s going to make it more sweet,” Watters added.
“[Journalist] Glenn Greenwald was on my show, and he said a lot of his friends in the mainstream media say that they think the mainstream media is pro-Trump, they think the network brass and producers, writers, they think they are actually biased in favor of Trump. These are the types of people we’re dealing with,” he noted further.
“So when Trump says we will have to yank licenses, it’s because these people are political operatives, they’re not journalists. If Donald Trump wins, I expect him to appoint somebody really strong at the FCC, like Hannity, so he could knock heads together and yank licenses,” he said.
