A street-side exchange involving Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has gone viral after she accused Fox News host Jesse Watters of “sexualiz[ing] and harass[ing]” her on air.
In the short video, which AOC, 36, reshared on X on Wednesday, Jan. 7, she’s standing outside the U.S. Capitol when a man with a microphone — identified in the clip as a Fox producer — approaches her and says, “Jesse Watters would like to invite you on his show.”
AOC immediately responds: “He has sexualized and harassed me on his show.”
The producer pushes back — “That’s not true” — but she doubles down.
“He accused me of wanting to sleep with Stephen Miller,” she says. “So why don’t you tell me what you think is acceptable to tell a woman?”
Along with the video, AOC added her own message on X: “You can either be a pervert or ask me to be on your little show. Not both. Good luck!”
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The incident appears to reference comments Watters made during an Oct. 7, 2025 episode of The Five, where he was on a panel with co-hosts Greg Gutfeld, Dana Perino, Jessica Tarlov and Paul Mauro.
During that segment, Watters addressed Ocasio-Cortez’s viral criticisms of Stephen Miller, 40 — including remarks about his height and calling him a “clown.” Watters then quipped, “I think AOC wants to sleep with Miller. It’s so obvious, and I’m sorry, you can’t have him.”
He followed with a longer monologue praising Miller, repeatedly framing him as a “high-value man” and contrasting him with other public figures he suggested AOC “may have” been interested in, including Gavin Newsom, Adam Schiff and Alexander Soros. He also added comments about “high-value men” having “younger wives with beautiful children,” before joking at the end, “I just gave him, like, a dating recommendation.”
The moment has resurfaced amid broader criticism of Watters’ on-air remarks in other contexts.
After President Donald Trump’s address to the U.N. General Assembly in September 2025 — when Trump and first lady Melania Trump were briefly delayed by a broken escalator and a teleprompter malfunctioned — Watters alleged the issues were deliberate, describing them as “an insurrection.”
“What we need to do is either leave the U.N. or we need to bomb it,” he said on The Five, drawing laughter from colleagues. He then added: “[The U.N. headquarters] is in New York, though, right? Could be some fallout there. Maybe gas it?”
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“Let’s not do that,” Perino warned from off camera.
Watters continued: “Don’t gas it. OK, but we need to destroy it. Maybe can we demolish the building? Have everybody leave and then we’ll demolish the building,” later adding that he hoped officials would “really injure, emotionally, the people that did it.”
U.N. officials later said the escalator stopped due to a cameraman’s misstep and that the White House controlled the teleprompter. Watters did not apologize on air, but U.N. spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric later confirmed he had privately apologized to U.N. global communications chief Melissa Fleming.
“There is nothing funny or ironic in calling for the bombing, the gassing, the destruction of this building,” Dujarric told reporters, according to Reuters. “That kind of language is unacceptable.”
