Fox's Jesse Watters picked on by co-hosts for saying women lack 'control' in buying cars
He stepped in it and his co-hosts ribbed him.
Jesse Watters was ranting on Wednesday about the lack of convenience that an electric car offers to consumers when he made a baseless claim that women in the household are sidelined when it comes to deciding on a car purchase.
"Usually the women don’t control which car to buy — Sometimes it's a collaboration,” he said on Fox News' "The Five."
The statement had Watters' co-hosts Jeanine Pirro, Dana Perino, and Jessica Tarlov piling on in disagreement.
“Wrong, wrong, wrong! Let it go!” Pirro told him, as Tarlov also told him he was way off base, first reported by The Daily Beast.
He then repeated with a wider grin: “Sometimes it’s a collaboration!”
Watters was siding with a coalition of more than 3,000 auto dealers who on Tuesday sent an open letter to President Joe Biden, calling on him to slow down his electronic vehicle pursuits.
"These vehicles are ideal for many people, and we believe their appeal will grow over time," their letter reads. "The reality, however, is that electric vehicle demand today is not keeping up with the large influx of BEVs [battery electric vehicles] arriving at our dealerships prompted by the current regulations."
ALSO READ: Former GOP congressman invites scrutiny by using campaign cash for 'security'
"BEVs are stacking up on our lots."
Watters began by saying, "They're not hitting any of their targets."
And he started conjuring who these kinds of gas-less cars would be marketed toward and landed on “liberal, suburban house husbands.”
He first scratched off urban because of the lack of chargers on the street and in garages.
The countryside is even more far-fetched because he asked: “Are you actually going to buy an electric car in the countryside, where you have to drive miles and miles and miles."
That leaves elders living in the suburbs.
"Older people are not buying electric cars," he said, staring at Pirro. "It's just too different... They can barely do email.”
He then considered suburban housewives and suburban house husbands — and caught an earful for the dig at women.
And women, for Watters, aren't ideal EV customers.
"Let’s just say the women that I know, at least, aren’t tech people. They’re not like, ‘Oh, let’s get an electric vehicle!’ No, that’s not what they’re about.”
How about men?
“So the men in the suburbs—a lot of them drive pickup trucks," he said. "If they don’t drive a truck, they’re a conservative, and they’re not buying an electric car."
Watters deduced with his pinching fingers that the minuscule amount of those looking to buy an EV are "liberal, suburban house husbands."
"Those are the only people in the market for an electric car. That’s not a big market!”