Fox News host invokes Trump to call female coworker demeaning nickname on live TV
The host’s comments appeared on the television network that has been riddled with sexual harassment allegations for nearly a decade
Several Fox News hosts and company leaders have resigned over the previous decade under allegations of sexual harassment(Image: Getty Images)
Fox News host Jesse Watters on Monday seemed to use President Donald Trump as an excuse to refer to a colleague by a demeaning nickname she allegedly hates.
Watters explained on “The Five” program that when he worked as an intern at the New York Stock Exchange in the 1990s, he would often run into financial reporter Maria Bartiromo. He said that even today, he refers to her by the nickname “Money Honey,” a moniker originally assigned to her by New York tabloid magazines because of her appearance while working for CNBC.
When fellow Fox News commentator Lisa Kennedy said Bartiromo was “not terribly pleased” by one occasion in which Watters called her by the nickname, Watters replied: “We can say it—Trump is in office!”
“Maria Bartiromo was there and everybody called her ‘Money Honey,’” Watters said on live television. “Later, we worked together at Fox News. Isn’t that great?”
“I actually work with Money Honey,” he said of Bartiromo, who joined Fox Business in 2014. “And I’ve been working with Money Honey for all these years.”
Bartiromo allegedly “bristled” about her nickname in private despite publicly brushing it off(Image: Getty Images)
Kennedy said that when Watters once introduced her to Bartiromo at an event, calling her by the nickname, Bartiromo was “not terribly pleased.”
“We can say it—Trump is in office!” Watters replied. However, Bartiromo said on FOX Business in 2014 that the nickname “Money Honey never bothered me. I have always have been so flattered to have just gotten noticed”.
Trump has, in public settings this year, referred to Attorney General Pam Bondi as “beautiful” and Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard as “hot.”
In the cabinet meeting, Trump made a rather untoward comment to his Attorney General, Pam Bondi. “I saw this poor, stupid Chuck Schumer. The guy looks like he aged a hundred years,” said Trump.
“And I don’t like getting into looks,” Trump added to a general laugh from his staff members. ” You know, looks don’t mean anything, right? When you’re in politics, looks don’t matter.”
In August, Trump referred to Attorney General Pam Bondi as “beautiful” during a public Cabinet meeting(Image: Getty Images)
“Look at Pam, I would never say she was beautiful because that would be the end of my political career,” Trump added. Many people viewing the clip on social media were immediately uncomfortable with the comment.
“Why is ‘beautiful’ the first thing that comes to Trump’s mind when discussing a blonde woman who is the Attorney General of the United States of America?” one person asked. “What?? You’ve done far worse, dude — that’s just who you are — a creep,” another said.
