Jesse Watters: Trump's efforts to overturn election on Jan. 6 were 'just politics'
Fox News pundit Jesse Watters downplayed the severity of former President Trump's effort to overturn the 2020 election, saying his refusal to accept defeat and the rhetoric encouraging his supporters to march on the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, were "just politics."
"He just believed the election was stolen," Watters said Tuesday on afternoon table talk program "The Five," while Fox covered the impending indictment against the former president live. "And he was trying to use everything in his power to push it as far as he possibly could all the way to the end. It just seems like that's politics. Isn't that just politics?"
Trump was indicted Tuesday in a Washington, D.C., federal court following special counsel Jack Smith’s investigation over his efforts to overturn the 2020 election, which culminated in the attack on the Capitol.
Watters, a vocal supporter of Trump, is among Fox's most popular hosts. Earlier this month, he took over the 8 p.m. program slot from ousted pundit Tucker Carlson. Carlson also repeatedly downplayed the severity of the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol while with Fox.
Trump has been critical of Fox in recent months over its coverage of his Republican rivals and claims about the 2020 election. Fox's coverage of the 2020 election eventually led to a $787 million settlement paid out to Dominion Voting Systems earlier this year.
Trump has separately been indicted in federal court in Florida in connection with his handling of classified documents after leaving the White House.
The former president and current front-runner for the GOP presidential nomination in 2024 has pleaded not guilty to all the charges he faces in the classified documents case and has argued that the investigations he faces are politically motivated.