Jesse Watters argued that voters dissatisfied with issues such as gas prices should not respond by returning power to the party he blames for problems involving crime, the border, cultural politics and energy costs, while Harold Ford Jr. offered a quick response after Watters took his argument into darker territory.

Watters framed his case around what he described as four major complaints during Joe Biden’s presidency: crime, the border, “woke” politics and gas prices.

"The main complaints under Joe Biden was crime, was border, was woke, and gas prices," Watters said.

He argued that President Donald Trump has addressed three of those four concerns and questioned why voters frustrated with the remaining problem would turn back to Democrats.

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"So Trump comes in and fixes three of the four. So if you're a voter and you're mad about high gas prices, which do suck, why would you hand power back to the party that created those four problems when the guy who solved through those four problems is in the White House doesn't make any sense," Watters said.

Watters also rejected the idea that Trump’s approach to immigration enforcement and crime should be viewed as extraordinary. Instead, he characterized those actions as ordinary responsibilities of the presidency.

"and it's not badass to enforce the law," Watters said.

He continued by listing border security, deportations, and crime enforcement as examples of what he believes a president is expected to do.

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"All he's doing is sealing the border, deporting bad hombres, and fighting crime," Watters said.

According to Watters, those policies may appear especially aggressive only when compared with political figures he views as weaker on those issues.

"That might look badass to pansies like Bill Maher, or in comparison to Joe Biden, the president's just doing his duty," Watters said.

Watters then shifted from policy to Trump’s personal resilience, pointing to the assassination attempt Trump survived and his decision to continue campaigning afterward.

"What was badass was that he gets shot in the head and ran for re-election," Watters said.

He argued that Trump faced enormous personal stakes in the election and claimed that losing could have resulted in him spending the remainder of his life behind bars.

"And if he hadn't won, he would have gone to prison for the rest of his life," Watters said.

Watters then pushed the discussion into deliberately provocative territory with a joke about what might qualify as something more extreme.

"Badass maybe would be like publicly executing people on live television," Watters said.

That prompted an immediate response from Harold Ford Jr.

"Let's not give him any ideas," Ford said.

WATCH:

The exchange centered on Watters’ argument that voters should judge the current administration by whether it has addressed problems they previously identified rather than allowing frustration with one issue to send power back to Democrats.

His broader point was that border enforcement, deportations, and crime policy should not be treated as unusual displays of political toughness. Watters instead portrayed them as basic duties attached to the presidency.

At the same time, he used Trump’s survival of an assassination attempt and return to the campaign trail as the example he considered genuinely remarkable.

Ford’s brief response served as a reaction to Watters’ final joke rather than a broader rebuttal to the political argument. The exchange ultimately contrasted Watters’ view of routine presidential enforcement with his description of Trump’s personal resilience, while ending on a sharp piece of gallows humor about the limits of executive power.

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