Newly released court documents obtained by The Guardian as part of a lawsuit against Fox News reveal candid exchanges between some of the network’s most prominent figures — including host Jesse Watters, who asserted in a message to then-colleague Pete Hegseth that the 2020 presidential election had been stolen.
Journalist Jeremy Barr shared one such conversation between Watters, 47, and Hegseth, 45, that surfaced in Smartmatic’s defamation case against Fox. The voting technology company is suing the network over on-air claims that Smartmatic interfered with the 2020 election.
In the messages shared by Barr, Watters — now host of Jesse Watters Primetime — discussed the election results with Hegseth, who previously co-hosted Fox & Friends Weekend before joining President Donald Trump’s second administration.
The two appeared to cast doubt on the outcome of the race, in which former President Joe Biden defeated Trump.
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“Is a s— show. And suspicious,” Hegseth wrote. “Spoke at length with my buddy, Sean Parnell, who is running in PA-17. His race flipped, in crazy ways. Unreported mail in ballots dropped overnight, after pause in counting. They found 80 dead people who voted w/ just a 1 hour search. Gov. removed signature and postmark requirements — took off the quality guardrails right when we needed them most w/ mail in.”
He continued, “The Left was itching to cheat, and they did. Just don’t see how it flips the POTUS election.”
Watters replied, “It’s over,” adding, “They stole it.”
“Everyone knows it,” he wrote, while acknowledging it would be “hard to prove.”
He then pledged, “But we’ll get revenge.”
Watters later seemed to ask Hegseth about a memo allegedly directing them not to use the word “fraud.” Hegseth responded, “No, I didn’t get the memo. Is it a thing?” before agreeing with Watters’ characterization of the election.
“They did steal it, and you are correct,” Hegseth wrote. “It’s probably over. Revenge is coming, just remains to see what it is.”
Despite those assertions, numerous investigations and audits have not uncovered evidence of widespread fraud in the 2020 presidential election.
In a statement shared with Mediaite on Monday, Nov. 24, Fox responded to the newly public documents and the ongoing Smartmatic lawsuit.
“The evidence shows that Smartmatic’s business and reputation were badly suffering long before any claims by President Trump’s lawyers on FOX News and that Smartmatic grossly inflated its damage claims to generate headlines and chill free speech,” the network said.
The statement continued, “Now, in the aftermath of Smartmatic being criminally charged with bribery in the Philippines and the Government’s motion to include evidence of Smartmatic’s business dealings in Venezuela and Los Angeles County, we are eager and ready to continue defending our press freedoms.”
Fox did not provide additional public comment about the reported messages between Watters and Hegseth. The Pentagon also did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Watters was tapped in 2023 to replace former Fox host Tucker Carlson, taking over the weeknight 8 p.m. primetime slot. That move came two months after Carlson, 56, exited the network in April 2023.
Before his departure, Carlson had privately vented about Trump’s refusal to accept the 2020 results. In text messages revealed in a separate lawsuit brought by Dominion Voting Systems, Carlson referred to Trump as “a demonic force” and “a destroyer.”
While Carlson publicly embraced Trump on his show, the messages showed him expressing contempt in private, telling a colleague, “We are very, very close to being able to ignore Trump most nights. I truly can’t wait.”
“I hate him passionately,” he added.
In September, Watters sparked backlash when he suggested “bombing” or “gassing” United Nations headquarters in New York City after Trump encountered problems with a teleprompter and an escalator while visiting for the General Assembly. The teleprompter failed at the start of Trump’s speech, and he and first lady Melania Trump had to walk up an escalator after it stopped.
On a Sept. 23 episode of The Five, Watters, who also co-hosts the program, alleged that U.N. staffers “sabotaged” both the escalator and the teleprompter. He called the mishaps “an insurrection” and said, “what we need to do is either leave the U.N. or we need to bomb it.”
As his co-hosts laughed, Watters continued, “[The U.N. headquarters] is in New York, though, right? Could be some fallout there. Maybe gas it?”
Co-host Dana Perino interjected, “Let’s not do that,” to which Watters replied, “Don’t gas it. Okay, but we need to destroy it. Maybe can we demolish the building? Have everybody leave and then we’ll demolish the building.”
He later privately apologized for those comments, according to U.N. spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric, who said Watters issued an apology to U.N. global communications chief Melissa Fleming after the organization raised concerns with Fox News about his remarks, Reuters reported.
