TNB Night Owl — Snark Attack Presents Jesse Watters Likes the Idea of Leg Irons

12 October Carp Tail (second version) Photo by Howard J.

“Incitement” conspiracy segment on Jesse Watters’ show, which aired June 8th, 2022.

So this segment aired Wednesday night, before the primetime J6 committee hearing. But it seems a fitting companion piece to the hearing. It gives you an idea of where the RW talking points will be later today and in the days to come. They’re going to double and triple down on this story, because that’s all they can do; they sure as hell can’t talk about the hearing. Not even to defend Trump.

As always, I will mark Jesse’s part in bold, and then my commentary will follow.

And just know how much I love y’all, because listening to this fool for nearly 8 minutes was excruciating. And not in the fun kind of way…

JESSE WATTERS: Our president famously said–

Me: Wait, wut? Is he talking about Biden? Is that an admission that Biden is the legal president?

JESSE WATTERS: –I’m not a mind reader. I can’t predict what will happen and what people will do. Well, Mr. President, you don’t have to be a mind reader to predict what happened today–

Me: It’s funny that the same people who excused Trump constantly riling up his base and being as divisive as he wanted to be are coming down on Biden in their very hypocritical way. Okay, it’s not funny; it’s appalling. It’s galling. It’s disingenuous. It’s disgusting that the same people who fucking cheered Trump every time he attacked someone are having the vapors and trying to play the blame game.

Hey… anything to take your viewers’ minds off that pesky January 6th committee hearing your network didn’t air last night, right? Anything to distract them from the fact that Donald Trump actually called for violence to be done in his name by his followers.

JESSE WATTERS: –when a leftwing lunatic flew across the country to try and assassinate Supreme Court justice Brett Kavanaugh. But was he just following orders? Remember what Chuck Schumer said:

Video clip

CHUCK SCHUMER: I want to tell you, Gorsuch; I want to tell you, Kavanaugh. You have released the whirlwind. And you will pay the price.

Video edited

CHUCK SCHUMER: You won’t know what hit you!

JESSE WATTERS: Was that incitement, Chuck?

Me: No, Jesse, it wasn’t. Why wasn’t it? Because that quote is from March of 2020. You can’t argue something said over two years ago incited anyone to do something today.

JESSE WATTERS: We’ll get to that in a minute.

Me: I’m waiting with bated breath, Jesse. Truly.

JESSE WATTERS: Today police arrested 26-year-old Nicholas John Roske at 1:30 A.M. He was carrying a bag with a Glock 17, a tactical knife, pepper spray, zip ties, a hammer, a screwdriver, a nail punch, a crowbar, duct tape, and hiking boots. Sounds like he wanted to take him out into the woods.

Me: It’s interesting how when Trump supporters showed up at the Capitol with some of this same gear, we were told they were just “normal tourists.”

JESSE WATTERS: Well, it came close to that until he got cold feet when he saw U.S. Marshals with arms guarding Kavanaugh’s house and called the cops on himself, telling them everything. He says he was furious over Roe v. Wade possibly being overturned — remember the leak? — and was looking for purpose in his life. So he found that purpose by going out and trying to kill a Supreme Court justice. Do you think that idea just popped into his head? Or did the orders come all the way from the top?

Me: Yes, Jesse. Some people who commit acts of violence (or attempt to) do so because they’re mentally ill. I mean, the right has been going on about the seriousness of mental illness since Buffalo and Uvalde. You certainly wanted to dismiss when the Buffalo killer spouted Great Replacement Theory rhetoric–the same arguments that are regularly made on Fox News and other RW media outlets by yourself and your fellow hosts. YOUR words obviously didn’t cause someone to act in a dangerous manner, but the innocuous words of Jen Psaki and other leftists did. Right, Jesse?

Video plays

JEN PSAKI: I know there’s an outrage right now, I guess, about protests that have been peaceful to date. And we certainly continue to encourage that, outside of judge’s homes. That’s the president’s position.

Me: Thanks to Tiff (all hail the great and powerful Tiff!), I have a link and more context on what Psaki said at this press conference:

What I do find is interesting, and I think most — many people have noted, is that there are voices on the right who have called out this — protests that are happening — while remaining silent for years on protests that have happened outside of the homes of school board members, the Michigan Secretary of State, or including threats made to women seeking repo- — reproductive healthcare, or even an insurrection against our Capitol.

So I know that there’s an outrage right now, I guess, about protests that have been peaceful to date — and we certainly continue to encourage that — outside of judges’ homes. And that’s the President’s position. But the silence is pretty deafening about all of the other intimidation that we’ve seen to a number of people.

White House Press Briefing, May 10, 2022

Me: So what do you say now, Jesse?

JESSE WATTERS: The White House encouraged protests outside the home of Supreme Court justices. Whatever happened to “words matter”?

Me: I guess you missed the part where she’s talking about peaceful protests, not riots or attacks.

JESSE WATTERS: So by the left’s own standards, they’re complicit.

Me: No, fuckwit. Because they weren’t calling for violence. They weren’t telling people you have to fight for me or fight to save our country. They said peacefully protesting outside judge’s homes was okay.

You want to make out that this is somehow no different from Trump telling his followers to fight for him. Well, Jesse, it is. It’s very, very different, and you know it. But you and Fox need to distract your viewers from the J6 committee coverage your network won’t be airing and trying to dismiss the seriousness of it.

Fuck you. And we’ll be revisiting this point later…

JESSE WATTERS: They argued that Trump’s speech on January 6th was a criminal act, because it incited a riot at the Capitol.

Me: It was and it did. And it’s nothing like the situation with the guy who wanted to shoot Kavanaugh, and, again, you know it, Jesse.

JESSE WATTERS: So in this case, by their own standards, the White House and the democrats in Congress practically endorsed the hit.

Me: Emphasis on the words “practically” and “endorsed.” Because “endorsed” didn’t happen; they simply said peaceful protests were okay. And they are. They’re constitutionally protected free speech. What isn’t okay is fomenting violence, and no one in the White House called for violence against the justices. So “practically” is simply a way to paper over the great Big Lie he’s telling here.

JESSE WATTERS: So, what did they have to say for themselves? Well, the president turned his back and he said nothing.

Video clip of Biden on a tarmac with people around (presumably reporters). Biden turns and walks toward the plane.

Me: Now you may be asking yourself, “Why did Jesse show that clip?” Or “Why didn’t they include the question Biden supposedly turned his back on?”

Because… no such question was ever asked.

Tiff comes to the rescue again with this:

(You’ll have to start the video at the beginning, as Tiff cued it when he turned.) As you can see, Biden gives a brief statement to the press and is asked no questions. So Jesse Watters just gave his audience a fictional account of what happened. AKA chose to share “alternative facts” with his audience. AKA lied his ass off to them.

JESSE WATTERS: His press secretary put out an email. And Attorney General Merrick Garland gave this canned response:

Video clip

MERRICK GARLAND: Obviously, it’s behavior that we will not tolerate. Threats of violence and actual violence against justices, of course, strike at the heart of our democracy, and we will do everything we can to prevent them and to hold people who do them accountable. For that reason, last month, I accelerated, uh, the protection of all the justices’ residences twenty-four/seven…

(They cut off the end of his sentence in the clip.)

JESSE WATTERS: Merrick’s not all in. He had the chance to arrest the protesters outside of Kavanaugh’s house last month, but he didn’t do it.

Me: Yes, you’re right, Jesse. He didn’t do it. Because we have this little thing called the First Amendment that says the government can’t limit our speech. This particularly applies to political speech.

It’s interesting how the right is only concerned about the First Amendment rights of their side, but not those of people on the other side… And non-violent protests which have been taking place for weeks are protected. We don’t get to go in and bust them up just because we don’t like them; or, OMG! it’s so scary, because these people are YELLING IN OUR FACES!!!!

The right is full of snowflakes too delicate to survive.

JESSE WATTERS: Didn’t fit the agenda.

Me: No, it would’ve been a violation of their constitutional right to free speech. But you do you, Jesse.

JESSE WATTERS: It’s actually a federal crime to protest outside a justice’s house.

Me: Well, it’s a little less clear-cut than that. They have to be “picketing or parading” with the intent to influence. Asking or even demanding someone change their mind isn’t criminal, because you can simply ignore them. Influence is through force or coercion, and there’s been none here. See this article by Jonathan Turley for more.

Even under the vague intent element under the statute, protests are criminal only if they are done with the “intent of interfering with, obstructing, or impeding the administration of justice, or with the intent of influencing any judge, juror, witness, or court officer.” Certainly, today’s protesters are upset about Justice Samuel Alito’s draft opinion in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, and they want to see Roe v. Wade preserved. However, few seriously believe that protesting at justices’ homes will make them more inclined to yield to mob demands. This is unadulterated rage by people who no longer recognize any limits of decency or civility in our political discourse.

If charged, the protesters likely would insist they were denouncing the justices’ views, not trying to coerce a change in those views. Many wanted to vent their rage directly at justices or use the home protests as a way to make the evening news.

Protesting at Justice’s Homes Should be a Subject of Condemnation, Not Prosecution, May 12, 2022

JESSE WATTERS: And Garland let ’em break the law.

Me: The law also says they can’t picket or parade outside a courthouse, but that is allowed all the time. So, yeah… if you want to look at it Jesse’s way, it might be against the law; but the law isn’t enforced ever.

JESSE WATTERS: Instead, they’re setting criminals free every day. Those leftists who firebombed a New York police department car during the “Summer of Love,” you remember? They’ve just been handed a plea deal and they’ll be back on the street in months.

Me: Excuse me, what? They’re serving time, but you equate them not serving enough to suit you as being set free?

For the record, he’s referring to the case involving Colinford Mattis and Urooj Rahman, who threw Molotov cocktails at an empty police cruiser. If you want to read the latest on this, you can do so here. (This is some 3rd-tier, RW blog, but even “legitimate” outlets like “The Blaze” were posting the same thing.)

Basically, the original charge could’ve gotten them 10 years. It was pled down to 5, but the prosecutors will settle for 18-24 months. The Judge (a Bush appointee) says he’s not bound by the prosecution’s sentencing guidlelines and will decide at sentencing in the fall how much he gives them.

But that isn’t the same as “setting them free every day,” now, is it? Because if it were, there’s plenty we could bitch about when it comes to J6 insurrectionists and Trump’s inner circle.

JESSE WATTERS: Hell, they even let the crazy guy who shot Ron Reagan out in jail. And he’s going on a little redemption tour. He’s playing his little guitar now. Just a mentally ill assassin and his guitar.

Me: Seriously? You’re bringing up Hinkley, who’s been locked away since 1981? Really? I guess he should’ve died in prison. But Peter Navarro…?

JESSE WATTERS: It’s no surprise people are trying to assassinate a Supreme Court justice. This is what happens when the leftwing machine lets criminals loose and targets their political opponents as evil.

Me: Because I’ve literally never, ever heard my RW husband call anyone on the other side of the political divide evil…

JESSE WATTERS: Because when someone is labelled “evil,” the ends justify the means.

Me: So let’s recap. So far he’s offered no evidence of anyone on the left calling for violence. He’s even shown clips of then NOT condoning violence. And he hasn’t shown anyone on the left referring to the justices as “evil,” but somehow, this is where we’ve ended up…

JESSE WATTERS: Remember they called the guy a rapist, a Nazi, everything.

Me: I guess we’re talking about Kavanaugh now?

JESSE WATTERS: Then on top of that, you have a media just as complicit.

Me: Oh, this should be good…

JESSE WATTERS: Remember when the black nationalists who drove his car into a Christmas parade? Or the Don Lemon follower who shot up a subway car. You don’t hear a lot about that. Media doesn’t cover that anymore.

Me: The media (meaning the leftwing media, one would presume) doesn’t cover that? Let’s see…

Here’s one. Here’s another.

Here’s “the media” not covering his not guilty plea months later:

But, yeah, sure. “The media” never covers this stuff if it’s someone on “their” side.

JESSE WATTERS: Those were one-day stories.

Me: I just proved they weren’t, asshole. And, I realize this might be shocking, Jesse, but the actual news media doesn’t have the luxury of spending days, weeks, and months bitching about the same few topics non-stop. Because new stories happen every day that they need to cover. That’s why stories aren’t talked about ad nauseum, like they are on RW media, which isn’t news, but merely opinion. Because y’all ignore a LOT. You know, like the coverage of the Jan 6th committee’s hearings that Fox didn’t share with their audience.

Yes, I’m gonna keep on beating that dead horse.

JESSE WATTERS: And they’re already doing it again. Earlier today, CNN said this wannabe assassin probably didn’t even have a weapon on him, even though their own reporting confirmed he was strapped.

Video clip from CNN

Says “11:21 AM ET” onscreen

Unidentified female reporter: We don’t yet know what the nature of the threat was, we don’t know what language the threat was, or what kind of weapon this man might have had, if he had one at all.

JESSE WATTERS: Catch that at the bottom of the screen? Just as she’s saying he maybe didn’t even have a weapon; CNN knows he had a weapon.

Me: And she might not be up on the most breaking aspects of a breaking story, dipshit. She’s not omnipotent or anything. Nor is she perfect. I’m sure you have never ever made a mistake on one of your broadcasts. Nope. All the inaccuracies on your show are intentional.

JESSE WATTERS: You think if a MAGA guy showed up with zip ties and a Glock outside of the wise Latina’s house–

Me: I’m just gonna have to interject and point out that little racist comment. Jackass.

JESSE WATTERS: –they’d be spinning it this way? Of course not.

Me: This isn’t spinning. This is her not keeping up with breaking news.

JESSE WATTERS: These people can’t be trusted.

Me: Says the guy who’s literally lying to his audience during this segment. And pretty much every segment on his miserable show.

JESSE WATTERS: And neither can the Department of Justice.

Me: Gee, if you can’t trust the media or the Department of Justice, who can his audience trust? What does he accomplish by sowing these seeds of doubt in the minds of his audience? How does this help them or our country?

JESSE WATTERS: What Merrick Garland said today was all for show. How do we know that? The protesters are coming back.

Me: Um… how does that prove your point?

JESSE WATTERS: Just as the wannabe assassin was hauled away in handcuffs, this leftist group, “Ruth Sent Us,” tweeted this: We’re protesting peacefully at Kavanaugh’s home again tonight. [The tweet says “his.” Jesse supplied the context of whose home.] By the way, that’s still against the law.

Me: By the way, I already covered that it is only if they’re attempting to influence, which they aren’t. (Because signs aren’t “influencing.”)

JESSE WATTERS: Here’s a shot of his house live.

[We see a vehicle attempting to back into the driveway, and zero protesters.]

JESSE WATTERS: Even peacefully protesting outside of a judge’s private residence; it’s illegal!

Me: Again, not entirely…

JESSE WATTERS: Protesters are supposedly heading over there right now. Doesn’t look like anyone’s going to do anything to stop this.

Me: There are at least a dozen police or other LE officers in the shot. They can probably handle any crowd that’s likely to show up.

JESSE WATTERS: Merrick Garland, are you listening?

Right now, Nancy Pelosi’s holding up a bill to increase security for our Supreme Court justices. It passed the Senate already. But Pelosi won’t even put the bill on the floor for a vote. Do they want to stop these people?

Me: Huh. This argument sounds oh-so-familiar, doesn’t it? Haven’t republicans in congress been holding up common sense gun laws? Why, yes. Yes they have.

The Supreme Court justices and other members of government already get protection, the bill wanted more.

What about our kids? What about people attending church or just going to pick up some groceries? Where’s Jesse’s and the right’s concern for them?

Oh, yeah, it’s nonexistent.

JESSE WATTERS: Do they? Or do they just want to fuel the rise in leftwing violence?

Me: Jeeze… seriously? One guy with a gun who turns himself in. Where’s the rise in leftwing violence here? “Ruth Sent Us” said they’d be peacefully protesting there. Where’s the rising leftwing violence?

JESSE WATTERS: Dana Perino made this point on “The Five” today, “If Garland doesn’t arrest these protesters, if anybody goes outside Garland’s (sic) house tonight. Na–Kavanaugh’s house tonight, they’re just as complicit.

Me: But Trump telling his followers to walk over to the Capitol and fight for their country totes wasn’t incitement, y’all!

Seriously, dude. You can’t arrest them if they’re not threatening people. Also, terribly persuasive argument in which you cite another Fox contributor. Like she’s going to say something that disagrees with the accepted wisdom at Faux.

JESSE WATTERS: And it’s clear Joe Biden has lost control of the left wing. Or, he’s terrified of condemning them.

Me: Biden’s administration has repeatedly denounced violence against the justices. How does that prove he’s terrified of them? Again, we have the First Amendment, and virutally no enforcement of people protesting outside the Supreme Court. So… just stop…

JESSE WATTERS: His party wound them up, and now they’re loose. And we’re the ones who have to deal with these wackos. But this is just the beginning; this summer is gonna be ugly. That’s why we have to get to the bottom of this.

Me: You know what was ugly? 19 children and two teachers whose bodies and faces were so obliterated that the authorities needed DNA samples to match them to their parents. And I don’t see Jesse giving a single crap about that. But let a few people scream mean things at some justices, and boy! He wants them all hauled off to jail!

There is no “bottom” to get to here, Jesse. But all this projecting makes me wonder what the J6 committee might’ve found out about you…

JESSE WATTERS: This could be a little criminal conspiracy that needs to be investigated. Again, by the left’s own standard.

Me: This is some weapons-grade gaslighting and an Olympic-medal caliber performance of pretzel logic. Seriously, how did we suddenly get to a conspiracy? It’s like we were just on our way to Poughkeepsie, and somehow took a wrong turn and ended up in Alburquerque.

JESSE WATTERS: We might have to, to appoint a commission.

Me: See what he did there? He brought this around to the J6 committee hearings that Fox didn’t broadcast, lest their audience be exposed to some painful truths.

JESSE WATTERS: We might have to hold hearings. We have a criminal leak.

Me: It wasn’t criminal. It was a breach of ethics and tradition, but not criminal. But, hey… why let a little thing like facts get in the way of a good rant, right?

Also, they’ve already said if the GQP takes control of at least one chamber of Congress this year, they’re going to do everything they can to obstruct Biden’s agenda as well as impeach everyone in sight. And they would’ve done that, regardless of this hearing being broadcast on primetime. That’s how much they hate Biden. Their hatred of him and the left is pathological.

JESSE WATTERS: We have a, a group that’s protesting outside the house, you have an Attorney General that’s not doing anything about this. You have a senator who’s agitating.

Me: Good grief, this is pathetic. So very pathetic. Schumer said what he did over two years ago, and apologized for it the next day. Tell us again who can’t be trusted to tell the truth, Jesse. Oh, right. It’s YOU.

BTW, where’s the evidence or even suggestion that these groups were working with one another? Where’s the proof that the would-be assassin was in contact with “Ruth Sent Us?” Or contact with the President? Or contact with Schumer? Oh, right, it doesn’t exist. But, hey! That’s what witch hunt investigations are for, right, Jesse?

JESSE WATTERS: You have a White House who’s giving this license.

Me: Um… Yeah. Stupid Biden! Doesn’t he know that he can just have the streets cleared of protesters with tear gas and brute force?

JESSE WATTERS: Maybe time to put some people in leg shackles like they did to Navarro.

Me: If I didn’t know any better, I’d think people like Jesse kinda get a chubby thinking about people in restraints…

But yeah… people protesting is way worse than the guy who–by his own admission in a tell-all book he authored–led the campaign to lobby states to overthrow their legitimate slates of electors and replace them with Trump loyals. You know, in an attempt to overthrow the legitimate peaceful transfer of power. Or in GQP speak, “perfectly fine and not at all illegal”…

JESSE WATTERS: These people incited violence, possibly. And we need to hold them accountable, if they did.

Me: No, they didn’t incite violence. Lying fuckwit.

JESSE WATTERS: Chuck Schumer, Nancy Pelosi, Liz Warren–anybody who has hands in this should face consequences, by the left’s own standards.

Me: This isn’t the left’s standards, but, okay… I honestly can’t wait for the day when this guy is frog-marched off his set.

JESSE WATTERS: Don’t call me crazy!

Me: No, I called you a fuckwit. You’re not smart enough to be crazy.

JESSE WATTERS: They set the rules, we’re just followin’ ’em.

Me: Okay, so that’s the end of the video. Now here are the rest of my thoughts.

Let’s return to this:

JESSE WATTERS: The White House encouraged protests outside the home of Supreme Court justices. Whatever happened to “words matter”? So by the left’s own standards, they’re complicit.

From his Fox “News” show, June 8, 2022

Okay, how is allowing protests to happen “encouraging” them?

Trump repeatedly told his base to come and fight for him in DC. That it would be “wild.” “We fight like hell. And if you don’t fight like hell, you’re not going to have a country anymore,” he said.

Consider: if the election was stolen as Trump insisted (and still insists), to the point that his followers no longer believe they can trust any result they don’t like, then what recourse do they have to “fight for him,” other than with physical violence? They can’t vote out anyone they don’t like, because they believe elections are stolen. So what else can they do?

Trump created this problem the right now has, that violence is their only answer. People like Jesse Watters are probably smart enough to see the corner they’ve helped the right paint itself into. And rather than stop and end it, they’re doubling and tripling down, pointing fingers of blame at the other side in the hopes that someone will do something horrible they can pin on the left and its “incendiary” rhetoric.

I’ll end by saying it’s pretty shameless for a guy who apparently lies for a living to chide anyone else that “words matter.”

Yes, Jesse. They certainly do. That’s why I’ve made it my mission to hold people like you accountable for yours.

That’s it, my Blender peeps! Stay snarky!

And don’t forget this week’s film noir is called “The Guilty,” a newly restored film which will be premiering on TCM this weekend! You can watch it Saturday night or Sunday morning at 10 AM eastern.

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