Jesse Watters calls an entire political party a scam while literally being paid to lie to millions of people
Same old talking point.
Jesse Watters just dropped a rhetorical bomb on Fox News’ The Five, calling the entire Democratic Party a “whole scam” while his own network pays him millions to deliver exactly that kind of monologue. The clip, posted by @Acyn on April 24, 2026, has already racked up nearly 100,000 views on X.
Watters kicked things off with a bold declaration that the Democratic Party is really about stealing money. From there, he launched into a rapid-fire list of alleged Democratic schemes. COVID? “Fauci funded the lab where the virus came from.” The Green New Deal? “Where are the solar panels? Where did they go? I haven’t seen anything.”
He even zeroed in on Rep. Ilhan Omar, questioning how her net worth could swing from $100,000 to $30 million and back again in a matter of months. “Maybe she’s hiding the money,” he mused. “Maybe there was never any money.”
He then ranted about a ‘racism racket’
Watters pivoted to the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), accusing the organization of running a “racism racket” that incubated racial division for profit. “You can’t pay racists then raise money off racism,” he said, arguing that the SPLC’s efforts to expose extremism were actually a “big fat psyop.” It’s a claim that gained some unexpected traction just days earlier, when the Department of Justice (DOJ) indicted the SPLC for fraud.
According to the New York Post, the indictment, announced on April 21, alleges the nonprofit paid millions to white supremacist groups while simultaneously raising money off their existence. These groups included the Ku Klux Klan and neo-Nazi organizations. Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said the SPLC funneled at least $3 million to eight members of far-right groups over the past decade.
One leader of the 2017 Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville received $270,000 over eight years, while another informant embedded in a neo-Nazi group was paid $1 million to steal documents. The indictment claims these payments were never disclosed to law enforcement, despite the SPLC’s public mission to dismantle extremist groups.
FBI Director Kash Patel described the scheme as a “widespread, decade-long multi-million dollar fraud,” concealed through shell companies with names like “Center Investigative Agency” and “Fox Photography.” The SPLC, for its part, defended its actions as part of a long-standing practice of using paid informants to gather intelligence on violent groups.
CEO Bryan Fair called the indictment a politically motivated attack, pointing to the organization’s history of infiltrating extremist networks since the 1980s. But the DOJ’s case suggests the lines between informant and instigator may have blurred.
Several of the paid sources were listed on the SPLC’s public “Extremist File” webpage while allegedly continuing to promote racist ideologies. The Charlottesville rally informant, for example, was accused of helping coordinate transportation for attendees.
Watters didn’t dive into the legal nuances of the SPLC case, but he didn’t need to
His broader point – that the Democratic Party and its allies are engaged in a pattern of financial deception – resonated with his audience. Supporters praised the segment as a long-overdue expose of Democratic hypocrisy, while critics were quick to point out the irony of a Fox News host accusing others of grift.
The Green New Deal, for instance, was never passed into law, and many of the renewable energy projects Watters claimed had “disappeared” were blocked by Republican-led rollbacks or court challenges. Others noted that Watters’ own network has faced its share of legal troubles, including a $787.5 million settlement in 2023 over defamation claims related to election fraud coverage.
The reaction to Watters’ monologue was predictably divided. Some viewers called it “word salad,” a recycled collection of talking points that ignored the broader context of policy debates. Others saw it as a necessary wake-up call, a rare moment of blunt honesty in a media landscape often accused of bias.
Either way, the clip underscored a growing trend in political commentary: the shift from policy criticism to outright accusations of systemic corruption. Watters didn’t just disagree with the Democratic Party’s platform. He framed it as a criminal enterprise.
That framing isn’t new, but it’s becoming more aggressive
The DOJ’s indictment of the SPLC adds a layer of real-world consequence to the rhetoric. If the allegations are proven true, the nonprofit’s actions could redefine how we understand the fight against extremism. Was the SPLC exposing hate groups, or was it inadvertently funding them? The answer may not be as clear-cut as either side would like.
The timing of Watters’ rant and the DOJ’s indictment is hard to ignore. Both events landed within days of each other, feeding into a narrative of institutional distrust that’s become a staple of modern political discourse. Whether that narrative holds up under scrutiny is another question. The SPLC’s legal troubles are real, but so are the complexities of infiltrating extremist groups.
Meanwhile, Watters’ claims about missing solar panels and disappearing USAID funds rely on a selective reading of policy outcomes. Renewable energy projects have faced setbacks, but they haven’t vanished. Still, the power of his monologue lies in its simplicity.
By reducing complex issues to a series of alleged scams, he taps into a deep well of public skepticism. That skepticism isn’t limited to one side of the political spectrum, either. Distrust in institutions like the government, media, and nonprofits has been growing for years. Watters’ rant didn’t create that distrust, but it certainly amplified it. And in an era where outrage drives engagement, that’s a winning strategy.
(Featured image: Gage Skidmore)
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