For many of us, being seated next to a Fox News host on an airplane would be comparable to a Saw trap. Now imagine it’s not even one of the lesser known Fox hosts, but Jesse Watters, one of the network’s biggest and most hateful stars. If you were hypothetically seated next to the guy who recently called for the United States to bomb the United Nations and he wanted to chat, it would actually be totally fine to put on your headphones and ignore him for the duration of the flight. But Gayle King did not feel the need to do that.
On Monday, King posted a selfie of her and Watters smiling like old pals while sitting next to each other on a plane. “Two TV people from competing networks walk on to a plane and to the surprise of them both, they’re seated right next to each other for over four hours,” King wrote on Instagram. “How did it go? Speaking for @jessewatters here: A good time was had by all! Hi, Jesse…saving your number!”
In case you’re unfamiliar with Watters’s oeuvre, he really is one of the worst guys on Fox News. He came up as Bill O’Reilly’s protégé, making a name for himself as the guy who would do racist man-on-the-street segments or stick a camera in the face of homeless people at Penn Station. Now, he hosts his own show, Jesse Watters Primetime, in the primo 8 p.m. slot on the network as well as The Five. Watters uses his platforms to say things like, “When a man votes for a woman, he actually transitions into a woman” and call for right-wing activists to “ambush” Dr. Anthony Fauci with “the kill shot.” But apparently he’s really cool on a four-hour flight.
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Some of King’s fans were not pleased with her new friend, and let her have it in the comments. “Why would you even post this,” one commenter asked. “He is one of the reasons the country is on fire right now,” wrote another. According the the New York Post, rapper Talib Kweli summed it up succinctly by commenting, “Nah Gayle this ain’t it.” Others applauded her for overcoming political beliefs and being able to have a “civil” conversation with a man who thinks a woman is the worst thing you can be. “Love this. We need more unity despite our differences,” a fan wrote.
Is it “unity” or is it two rich people ignoring their stated values and having a pleasant conversation in first class? This is probably not the coalition that is going to solve any of our country’s current problems, but congrats to King on making a new friend. I would say the odds are high that she gets a “Who’s this?” text if she ever tries to use his number.
