Fox News host Jesse Watters made an on-air appeal for the Trump administration to be “less callous” when laying off federal employees after a military veteran friend was “DOGE’d” in staff cuts to the Pentagon.
A report on Wednesday revealed that the Defense Department had provided the Trump administration with a list of probationary employees who could be targeted in the next round of federal workforce reductions.
Watters brought up the case of his friend, a 20-year military veteran, on The Five. His friend, who had been in a new role at the Pentagon for just a few months and was still under probation, learned this week that his job was set to be terminated as part of DOGE’s initiatives.
“Let me tell you a story about Chris. Chris was a guy I met at a shooting event in New Jersey,” Watters began.
“Was Chris in the interview or another guy? Male or female?” panelist Harold Ford Jr., a former Democratic congressman from Tennessee, jibed.
“Let me finish,” Watters jokingly said after a brief pause. “A 20-year veteran of the U.S. military, one of the guys who has killed a lot of bad guys. Put his life on the line. He punched out after 20 years of working for the Pentagon. And he’s only been there a few months, so his probationary period he just found out he’s probably going to get laid off. He’s going to get DOGE’d.”
The host added: “He texted me and said: ‘Jesse, this is not good. I’m really sad. I’m upset.’ This guy is not a DEI consultant. He is not a climate consultant. This guy is a veteran. So when you’re talking about DOGE-ing people, veterans should get priority. Because if you’re going to go out there and kill enemies, put your life on the line, you should not be in the same category as people that are doing DEI.”
Pivoting to Ford Jr., Watters then said: “Now, Harold and his ilk, they like to talk about the slash and burn corporate ethos – he just needs to be a little bit less callous with the way, Harold, we talk about DOGE-ing people. I want that to sink in.”
“You’re arguing with yourself!” Ford Jr. replied.
“No! I am not guilty of that,” Watters said. “I finally found one person I knew who got DOGE’d, and it hit me in the heart.”
Watters then concluded: “Talking about big-ticket items, right? Let’s talk about those. The Pentagon, you have a weapons program in some influential congressman’s district. It is showing no promise in the theater of war. You cut that! And that’s big savings! So, besides saving my friend, Chris, we want bigger dividend DOGE check rebates. I don’t want to pay down the debt, put it back into the economy.”
WATCH:
“I finally found one person I knew that got DOGE’d, and it hit me in the heart.” Even Jesse Watters thinks DOGE cuts have gone too far. pic.twitter.com/gnK9eKgjQB
— Mike Sington (@MikeSington) February 20, 2025
Trump spoke to reporters at Mar-a-Lago this week and did not mince his words when asked about a few hot-button issues, especially DOGE’s efforts to save taxpayers money.
One exchange went viral after a reporter tried to ask Trump a “gotcha” question about Musk and his actual “title” at DOGE.
Trump responded by pulling out a piece of paper and listing off several of the recent findings by DOGE, which showed even more waste, fraud, and abuse that the American people want to eliminate:
REPORTER: In a court filing, the White House said that Elon Musk is not a DOGE employee and has no authority to make decisions. Can you clarify for us today (inaudible)?
PRESIDENT TRUMP: Elon Musk is. Yeah. Yeah, Elon is to me a patriot. So, you know, you could call him an employee, you could call him a consultant, you could call him whatever you want. But he’s a patriot.
I mean, look at the kind of things I just said. So just in case that question got elsewhere. And which I’m surprised it took so long, actually. But you know what? Ukraine is a bigger deal because people are dying by the thousands a week. Thousands.
But look at this, from 90 to 99. Social Security, 6 million, 54,000 people. Well, that’s okay. Maybe that’s possible. You know, 92, to 90, 99, maybe it’s possible. That’s a lot of people, though, at that.
But people that live to 100 to 109, 4,734,000. Wow. That’s a lot. That means over 100 years old. 4 million people. I don’t know. I know there’s so many. I know people that are doing great in their 90s, but not too many people over 100, but over 120 from 120 years old. People that are 120 years old, up to 129, 3,472,000 people.
Wow! You know, that can’t possibly be because the record is like I think as one person, a woman lived to 127, but they have 3472.
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