Fox News host Jesse Watters ripped former Kamala Harris senior adviser and “White Dudes For Harris” founder Mike Nellis on Tuesday night — and it may have been Watters best ever moment.
Nellis claimed the National Guard would not be needed in Chicago to combat the city’s massive crime problem. There are over 2,800 shootings per year in the Windy City.
Watters pressed Nellis on “Jesse Watters Primetime” on Monday about whether Chicago should accept federal help after President Donald Trump said Friday he was considering sending National Guard troops to the crime-plagued city following their successful deployment to Washington, D.C. on August 11.
Nellis immediately deflected by attacking red states instead of addressing Chicago’s well-documented violence crisis.
“I think if Donald Trump wants to get involved heavily in issues somewhere else, he should go look at red states, because Donald Trump doesn’t have any urgency to deal with Louisiana, which is the murder capital of the United States. He doesn’t have anything to say about Oklahoma, which has the worst schools in the nation. Doesn’t have anything to say about Arkansas, which has the highest teen pregnancy rate,” Nellis said.
Watters fired back, pointing out the flaw in Nellis’s deflection.
“Those are crime ridden too! And if the mayor wants to invite Donald Trump to go in there and do it. Chicago’s a little bigger than Baton Rouge, Mike, OK? You live in Chicago, and you should care. Did you hear my friend out there in the monologue talking about her cousin, her uncle, and her niece? They’re all dead, Mike! Do you care about that at all?”
The Fox News host hammered Nellis for defending Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson’s refusal to accept federal assistance despite the city’s staggering murder rate.
“Your mayor doesn’t care. Your mayor doesn’t want any backup. They’re offering them more cops, more guards. And he says, ‘No, more housing.’ What the hell’s wrong with him?”
Chicago has maintained the highest murder rate among U.S. cities with more than one million people for seven consecutive years, according to the White House. The city has also recorded the most murders of any U.S. city for 13 consecutive years.
While Chicago Police Department data shows homicides trending down slightly over the last 12 months compared to 2023, the frequency of killings remains higher than before the 2020 pandemic. In the last 12 months through August 16, there have been 474 homicides, with an average yearly homicide rate of 722 between 2021 and 2023.
Despite these alarming statistics, Democratic Illinois Governor JB Pritzker and Mayor Johnson held a press conference Monday telling Trump not to come to Chicago, with Johnson touting what he claimed were lowered crime statistics.
When Nellis tried to argue against federal assistance, he revealed his true priorities — power and politics.
“I know I’m not going to feel safe when I take [kids] to a ball game. I’m going to see armed military members. There’s a way to do this,” Nellis complained, and said Trump was “defunding” the city’s police force.
“All right, Mike, you guys defunded the police. So don’t talk about cutting funding, OK? Everybody knows the Democrats defunded,” Watters shot back. “They defunded all over the country, Mike.”
Take a look —
HOLY SMOKES: A WHITE DUDE FOR HARRIS from CHICAGO just came on FOX NEWS and GOT BODYSLAMMED for NOT wanting SAFE STREETS 🤯
“Tanks SCARE YOU? I’d be more SCARED of STRAYS” 🔥
“That’s been DEBUNKED, you should WATCH the FIVE you’d learn A LOT” 🤣
“They’re ALL DEAD… do you care… pic.twitter.com/Dm0vtXqnGf
— Jesse Watters (@JesseBWatters) August 27, 2025
After the heated exchange, Nellis took to social media to brag about his performance, posting on X: “Seems I triggered @JesseBWatters a bit tonight.” In another post, he used profanity to attack the president: “I told Donald Trump to stay the f— out of Chicago and focus on the emergencies in Republican cities and states, and Jesse Watters did not like it.”
Democrats opposition to federal assistance comes despite overwhelming public support for Trump’s crime-fighting efforts.
A Harvard CAPS/Harris poll released Monday showed that 54% of registered voters said Trump’s crime-fighting efforts in the nation’s capital are “justified and necessary.”
Trump’s deployment of the National Guard to Washington, D.C. has already produced concrete results, with the federal takeover leading to 1,007 arrests and 111 illegal firearm confiscations, according to U.S. Attorney for Washington, D.C., Jeanine Pirro.
The president’s decision to deploy the National Guard followed a series of high-profile crimes in the nation’s capital, including the brutal attack against a former Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) staffer and the fatal June 30 shooting of Republican intern Eric Tarpinian-Jachym.
Trump has indicated he may expand National Guard deployments to other crime-ridden Democratic cities, including Los Angeles and New York, all of which have shown similar resistance to federal assistance despite their ongoing public safety crises.