Jesse Watters Says the Women’s National Soccer Team Could Get Paid Fairly if They Kept Their Traps Shut

Leave it to Jesse Watters to say some sexist bullshit about how women can’t be paid fairly if they badmouth the president.

Speaking on Monday’s The Five on Fox News, Watters said the U.S. Women’s National Soccer Team, who just won the Women’s World Cup amid negotiating for fair salaries and working conditions, hurt their chances of being paid the same as the U.S. Men’s National Team because they couldn’t keep their opinions about President Donald Trump to themselves.

“The point is, though, that the women are not helping their case by their behavior,” Watters said, after saying that the women shouldn’t get paid more because they don’t bring in as much revenue as the men’s team.

“If you go out and you disparage the president, you act in unpatriotic ways, and then complain about not getting paid equally, well, what did you think is going to happen? People aren’t gonna watch,” Watters continued. “I talked to many people this weekend who said, ‘I love soccer, I’m not watching the U.S. women because I didn’t like what they said.’”

Watters’ argument is entirely sexist—he wouldn’t dream of tsk-tsk-ing any white, male athlete who’d said they’re “not going to the fucking White House.” Trump went berserk after star forward Megan Rapinoe’s comments, claiming she disrespected the country and that he was inviting the team to the White House whether they won or not. After the team won, Trump congratulated them, and later said their push for equal pay depends on the “numbers.” In other words, the women’s team can shove it.

Fine, look at the numbers: This women’s final bested viewership of the men’s 2018 final game by 22 percent, becoming the most-watched soccer match on English-language TV in the U.S. since the women’s 2015 final, according to Fox Sports.

Watters’ colleagues on the program shrugged him off, with Juan Williams saying he wasn’t aware of this “truth” Watters alleged, with Dana Perino and Greg Gutfeld saying they didn’t care about the women sharing their opinions about the president. Perino also said she thought the women’s team should be paid the same as the men. (Fox News hosts, for what it’s worth, have historically not held this “politics in sports is fine” stance when it comes to other athletes.)

Ahh yes, just the right amount of “balance” to unabashedly wave around this idiot’s sexist assertions all the while appearing to not cosign them.