Once again, Fox News’ ambush guy, Jesse Watters, can’t take what he gives out to others. After being ambushed by Huffington Post’s Ryan Grim last night at an MSNBC afterparty following the White House Correspondents’ dinner, Watters started a physical altercation.
The Washington Post has the details:
Here’s how it went down, per several witness: Grim and Watters were among a group located in a heated tent just outside the main party area. The two apparently don’t have a personal relationship, but Grim realized who Watters was and recalled a beef he had with the “O’Reilly Factor” correspondent that dated back to 2009, when Watters, known as an “ambush journalist,” had engineered an on-camera confrontation of writer Amanda Terkel, now a HuffPo colleague of Grim. Terkel’s account of the incident was headlined “I Was Followed, Harassed, And Ambushed By Bill O’Reilly’s Producer.”
Grim decided to give Watters a taste of his own medicine, whipping out his camera phone and filming him. Watters didn’t take well to this, eventually snatching the phone away from Grim and putting it in his pocket. Grim set out to retrieve it, and a scuffle ensued. No cinematic sparring or broken beer bottles, witnesses said, but the two flailed around a bit, upending a table and bumping into several people.
“Punches were definitely thrown,” said one witness.
Before any damage was done, several bystanders, including Sean Spicer, communications director at the Republican National Committee, separated the two. Spicer said he didn’t see the lead-up to the fight and said he was merely attempting to stay true to the party venue. “Just trying to keep the peace,” he said.
Asked for comment, a Fox spokeswoman said the most Washington thing ever: “Jesse will address the issue tomorrow night on The O’Reilly Factor.” Meanwhile, Grim was unrepentant. “Ambush guy can’t take getting ambushed,” he said. “Maybe he should think about his life choices.”
It happened at the United States Institute of Peace, of all places.
Trivia fact: the Think Progress post that Terkel wrote for which she was ambushed by Watters was based on a NewsHounds post by Priscilla.
The Blaze has a few more details:
Watters first snatched the reporter’s cellphone and “threw it about 10 feet,” according to Grim. When he returned with the camera still recording, Grim said Watters then snatched his phone and put it in his pocket.
It was only when Watters apparently refused to return the phone that things got physical between the two tuxedo-wearing journalists.
“I expected him to handle it a lot better since he does this for a living,” Grim told TheBlaze. “He put my phone in his pocket and repeatedly refused to return it. I warned him I would take it back, and eventually did.”
This is not the first – or even the second – time Watters has reacted like a coward when being ambushed the way he has made a career out of ambushing others.
I look forward to hearing Watters’ take on this on tomorrow night’s The O’Reilly Factor.”
Here’s a bit of video from the scuffle last night, via Twitter.
Who won the fight @jessebwatters @ryangrim? #nerdprom pic.twitter.com/aMTIGJKjvZ
— Cassandra Fairbanks (@CassandraRules) May 1, 2016
Can’t wait for the lies he comes up with to whitewash being a complete wanker.
Any way one time Otis’s daughter was broken down by the side of the road and couldn’t get her car started. She called Otis and for a wrecker. The wrecker driver showed up before Otis, whipped out a pair of channel lock pliers, tightened the battery post and said, “That’ll be $35.”.
Otis showed up and said" Hell no! I’m not payin’ $35 for you to tighten a battery post! ".
The wrecker driver said" Oh yeah? " and he reached into the daughter’s car and pulled the keys out of the ignition switch.
Otis said “Give me those keys back!”. But the wrecker driver put them in his pocket.
Otis admitted to us that he didn’t know what to do at this point. So he grabbed the wrecker driver from behind in a bear hug. Then he really didn’t know what to do. He told the wrecker driver again" Give me those keys!". Nothing.
So there they were at an impasse. Otis had’nt been in a fight for years. Otis looked at the wrecker driver’s ear, opened his mouth and clamped down.
The wrecker driver started screaming and hollering “Let me go! I’ll give em back!!” He reached in his pocket and slipped them to Otis. Otis still had him in a bear hug. He said “Please let me go mister.” And Otis placed him in the cab of the wrecker. The wrecker driver’s ear was dangling from the side of his head,the wrecker driver staring straight ahead. The wrecker got out of there.
Amazingly, when the police showed up, they sided with Otis. Texas law prevailed in Otis’s favor somehow.
Otis was a lot of fun.
But everybody at Faux has a thin skin most especially Jesse’s boss, BOR.