Jesse Watters on Thursday sparked outrage by suggesting that Black Americans should increase their birth rates to counteract the Supreme Court's recent weakening of the Voting Rights Act. The comments were made during a segment on Fox News' "The Five."
The Supreme Court Decision
The conservative-led Supreme Court ruled in a Louisiana case that redrawing congressional districts to correct racial disparities was essentially illegal. This decision makes it easier for Republicans to break up minority-concentrated districts to favor their own candidates, effectively gutting key protections of the Voting Rights Act.
Watters' Controversial Remarks
"I did some research on the Blacks, as Judge Jeanine so eloquently would say," Watters began, referring to his former colleague Jeanine Pirro. He then pivoted to House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.), who had called the Supreme Court "illegitimate" and a "Trump court" after the ruling. Watters dismissed potential Democratic gerrymandering as a solution, instead offering his own advice.
"The solution to Hakeem’s problem ... is babymaking," Watters said. "Blacks, for 150 years, have only represented 10 to 15% of the American population. That’s not that much. So if they want to have more seats, they gotta get in between the sheets."
He continued, comparing Black Americans to Hispanic populations: "Spanish [people], they’re coming north, they’re having tons of kids. And at this point, they have almost the same amount of House seats as Blacks. The Hispanic Caucus is almost as big as the Black Caucus. So if you guys need to solve that problem, you know what you need to do."
Reaction from Co-Host
Co-host Harold Ford Jr., a former Democratic congressman who is Black, expressed disagreement, stating he did not want districts drawn to "advantage a party." Watters replied, "No, you’re just discriminating against whites," further escalating the tension.
The remarks have drawn widespread criticism for their racial insensitivity and oversimplification of complex voting rights issues.
