With Sycophants Like These, Who Needs Enemies?

Fox News's Jesse Watters is unwittingly painting a damaging picture of Trump.

Joe Biden is old and doddering. I don’t think that’s even controversial to say anymore. Polls show that most Americans are concerned about the issue, and think his Republican challenger, Donald Trump, is more physically and mentally astute than he is.

But the current trial in New York, in which Trump is facing criminal charges related to alleged hush-money paid to porn-star Stormy Daniels, is screwing (excuse the pun) with that narrative. And it’s not just because the former president keeps falling asleep in court.

It’s surprisingly also coming from friendly fire — seemingly unrealized aspersions cast by a media ally so loyal and servile to Trump that some have speculated Trump was granted legal custody of him after he was orphaned by Bill O’Reilly’s abrupt departure from Fox News.

I’m talking, of course, about Jesse Watters.

No one who’s paid any attention to Watters over the last eight years could possibly question his devotion to the former president. He’s served as one of Trump’s most embarrassing sycophants, reliably parroting his talking points, casually excusing even his most inexcusable conduct, and overall portraying him as a real-life super-hero birthed to rescue American patriots from the evil clutches of Democrats, NeverTrumpers, and the Deep State.

Yet, Watters’ coverage of the trial would seem to be quite harmful to perhaps Trump’s strongest argument for why he’s better positioned to serve as president than his octogenarian opponent, “Sleepy Joe.”

In his attempts to produce sympathy for Trump’s legal plight, Watters has been portraying Trump as old, weak, unhealthy, and perhaps even incapable of making it through the trial process.

One can argue, as I have, that the charges in this case are dubious. They involved some legal gymnastics, and the evolution of how they came to fruition was clearly politically motivated. But that’s not what Watters has been focusing on lately. He’s been casting Trump as too physically and mentally compromised to deal with the challenge.

It began earlier this week on The Five, with Watters complaining that Trump, just by having to appear in court, was being denied desperately needed exercise and sunlight.

“He’s usually golfing,” Watters decried. “And so you’re going to put a man who’s almost 80, sitting in a room like this on his butt for all that time? It’s not healthy… He needs sunlight, and he needs activity. He needs to be walking around… It’s really cruel and unusual punishment…”

So cruel and unusual, in fact, that Watters later argued on his prime-time show that the conditions Trump was being subjected to were worse than that of prisoners at Guantanamo Bay, including 9/11 mastermind (and multi-time waterboard recipient) Khalid Sheikh Mohammed.

“Trump’s not even allowed to complain about the thermostat,” lamented Watters, amplifying the grievance voiced by the former president (who’s long bragged of his personal stamina) that the courtroom is chilly. “It’s a meat-locker in there!” Watters added.

According to multiple reports, the room is indeed a cold. Assuredly not as cold as my childhood basement-bedroom (brought on in part by a ruthless heating-bill competition my parents had with a neighbor down the street), but definitely cold. The courtroom is in an old building with a less than ideal temperature-control situation. Everyone involved in the trial so far has dealt with the coldness, including the judge, jurors, lawyers, bailiffs, reporters, witnesses, and miscellaneous observers.

Yet, Trump is the one person among them that Watters is extremely worried about. He’s the guy who, according to the Fox host, may be too fragile to withstand the ordeal.

“He gets mocked for just closing his eyes,” Watters continued, highlighting the multiple times Trump has reportedly dozed off during proceedings.

And once again, Watters drew attention to how old Trump is.

“This isn’t lawfare. It’s torture,” he said. “They’re making a 77 year-old man sit inside a dingy room for eight hours straight, four days a week.”

What Watters is effectively describing as elder-abuse is probably better recognized by millions of office-employees across the country as a regular work-week — actually, just a partial work-week (four days rather than five). And Watters wasn’t done.

“They’re draining his brain and his body…” he bellowed. “They say sitting is the new smoking… You’re going to sit him in a chair in freezing temperatures, and just let people rip you, and you can’t say anything. Four days a week. Eight hours a day. That takes a toll.”

If this experience really is taking the toll on Trump that Watters is describing, and Trump is genuinely too weak to appear in a brisk courtroom for a couple weeks during normal workday hours, it’s probably time to ask an important question: How on earth can this man possibly survive another four years in the White House?

We’re talking about our country’s highest executive office — a public leadership position that is extremely stressful, involves hugely consequential decisions being made (some of which have global ramifications), and includes commanding our national forces and control of our nuclear arsenal.

And Trump — a guy whose enthusiastic supporters call a “fighter” and insist he’s the only person “tough enough” for the job — can’t cut just sitting in a cold room and listening to people talk?

Hey, don’t answer that question for me. Answer it for Watters. He’s the guy making the argument. He’s the guy portraying Trump as old, dithering, and about one degree-Fahrenheit or one missing leg-stretch away from being hauled out of the courtroom on a stretcher.

Heck, at this rate I’m half-expecting Watters to invite a gastrologist onto his show to discuss health concerns related to Trump’s alleged courtroom flatulence.

According to the polls, the electorate has largely given Trump a pass on his age and overall health (at least thus far). Conversely, these matters have been a real political liability for Joe Biden. But Watters, with his cartoonish defenses of Trump, apparently can’t see that he’s making age and health a political burden for Trump too. In fact, I wouldn’t be at all surprised if the DNC and other pro-Biden groups use some of these clips in their campaign ads, in hopes of nullifying Trump’s advantage.

With sycophants like Watters, who needs enemies?