Fox News anchor Jesse Watters has claimed that actor Shia LaBeouf called him "trash" in an airport lounge recently.
Watters made this claim during an on-air conversation about CNN's Chris Cuomo and his reaction to recent public ridicule.
Watters said that he was with his family in the airport lounge when actor Shia LaBeouf, or someone who "looked exactly like him," came up to him and called him "trash" in front of his kids.
Watters' confusion over simple things like LaBeouf's name, "the actor Shia LaBuff, or whatever his name is..." coupled with his confusion over whether it really was LaBeouf or just someone who looked like him didn't lend him much credence in the eyes of many on Twitter.
There was not much in the way of support for Watters in the responses to the interview.
Jesse Watters is well-known for his vehement support of Donald Trump and his administration's policies, even going so far as to claim that the policy of separating children from their parents at the border was a good thing:
"Some would say it's a more humane policy [than keeping families together]."
His recurring segment on The O'Reilly Factor was also often massively problematic, such as in the episode below when he went to New York City's Chinatown and offended everyone with a string of racist stereotypes.
Fair warning, the video manages to be both highly offensive and exceedingly cringeworthy.
Watters' World: Chinatown editionyoutu.be
It is easy to see why there was little sympathy for Watters on social media. Someone who makes their living as a journalist—not a shock jock or comedian—by mocking and insulting others will have a hard time gathering support.
LaBeouf, on the other hand, got quite a bit of support on Twitter.
Shia LaBeouf has been quite vocal in his opposition to the President and his policies. An art installment called "HE WILL NOT DIVIDE US, " which was originally placed outside the Museum of the Moving Image in New York, was organized by LaBeouf with his friends and fellow artists Nastja Säde Rönkkö and Luke Turner.
The installation drew an astounding number of trolls and has since been moved to several alternate locations. It now resides at Le Lieu Unique in Nantes, France, where a single flag with the words "he will not divide us" is flown from the top of the building and will be livestreamed for the remainder of the current presidential term.
Watters seemed pretty unsure of whether it really was LaBeouf who called him out in the airport, but it's not outside the realm of possibility if one considers LaBeouf's history.
But unless the actor steps up and confirms the accusation, we will likely never know if it was really him or some other person who considers Watters trash.
Get one of Shia LaBeouf's earliest works with the Disney film Holes, available here.
