Fox News host Jesse Watters issued a mea culpa on Wednesday evening for consistently referring to Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) as the next speaker of the House last year.
McCarthy has been mired in a slog this week as he attempts to become the next leader of the lower chamber, where Republicans hold a 222-212 advantage. However, he has been unable to notch the required 218 votes because 20 members of his conference have cast ballots for others.
Democrats unanimously voted for Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) in all six roll call votes so far. It is the first time since 1923 that the House failed to choose a speaker on the first ballot.
On Wednesday’s Jesse Watters Primetime, the host said he “jinxed” McCarthy.
“Tonight, Primetime needs to issue an apology,” Watters began. “It appears we may have gotten a little ahead of ourselves.”
He played a montage of three interviews he conducted with McCarthy in which he referred to him as “speaker”
“Kevin McCarthy is the House minority leader – soon to be speaker – who joins me now,” he said in one clip from October.
“Kevin McCarthy, the speaker joins us now,” Watters declared in another from December.
“I’m just going to call you speaker and get it out of the way,” he told McCarthy in November.
“Yeah, I may have jumped the gun a little bit,” Watters said on Wednesday night. “And I jinxed McCarthy. I’m sorry. The voting process for House speaker isn’t as cut and dry as we thought it would be. And, quite frankly, it’s been a little messy.”
Republicans were widely believed to be poised for a “red wave” election in November. However, they underperformed and took only a narrow majority in the House, and failed to retake the Senate.
Watch above via Fox News.
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