Fox News’ Jesse Watters Calls to ‘Bomb’ U.N., or ‘Maybe Gas It,’ After Broken Escalator and Teleprompter During Trump’s Visit

Veteran Fox News anchor Jesse Watters called for a bombing of the United Nations headquarters in New York City on September 23 following a malfunction of the teleprompter and escalator during President Donald Trump’s visit to the General Assembly earlier that day.

On Tuesday, on Fox News’ “The Five,” Watters discussed the teleprompter failure at the beginning of Trump’s speech at the UN. The president addressed the issue, saying, “Whoever’s using that teleprompter is in big trouble.”

Watters also addressed Trump’s complaint that an escalator at the United Nations headquarters had jammed while he and First Lady Melania Trump were on it, forcing them to ride it.

Watters claimed that UN staff had “sabotaged” the escalator and teleprompter, calling the malfunctions “an insurgency, and what we have to do is either leave the UN or bomb it.”

Following this remark, Waters’s co-hosts laughed off-camera, while one of them responded with a “Hmmm.”

“[The UN headquarters] is in New York, right? There could be fallout there. Are we going too far?” Waters continued, while The Five co-hosts could still be heard laughing.

“Let’s not do it,” replied Dana Perino, 53, co-host of The Five, off-camera.

Waters, 47, continued, “Let’s not go too far. Okay, but we have to tear the whole thing down. Maybe we could tear down the building? Let everyone leave, and then we’ll tear it down.”

Waters, Perino, and co-host Greg Gutfeld, 61, then joked about converting the UN building into “affordable housing.” Waters finally said, “No, this is absolutely unacceptable, and I hope they get to the bottom of this and damage the morale of those who committed this offense.”

This comment sparked a furious response on social media, with some calling for Waters’s dismissal.

A UN spokesperson addressed the escalator incident Tuesday, explaining that a videographer from the U.S. delegation accidentally activated the escalator’s stop mechanism, causing the problem.

“The safety mechanism is designed to prevent people or objects from accidentally getting caught in the escalator’s gears,” Stéphane Dujarric said in a statement.

Another unidentified source told ABC News that the teleprompter was operated by a White House official, not a UN staffer.

However, White House press secretary Carolyn Leavitt told Fox News on Tuesday that the White House would investigate to determine whether the disruptions were intentional.

As Leavitt wrote on Channel X: “If someone at the UN intentionally blocks an escalator… they should be fired and immediately investigated.”

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On Wednesday, Trump began his speech by criticizing the UN itself.

He continued: “A little language doesn’t solve wars… A bad escalator and a bad teleprompter, that’s all I got from the UN.”

On immigration, Trump boasted, “I’m very good at it,” before bluntly declaring, “Your country is going to hell.”