Fox News host Jesse Watters is coming to the defense of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who was mocked on social media Monday after swimming in the sewage-filled waters of Rock Creek in Washington, D.C., with his grandkids.
Watters claimed during a panel discussion Tuesday on “The Five” that the water “looks clean” in the photos Kennedy shared on social media. His co-hosts agreed.
“RFK Jr. is testing his immunity this weekend by jumping into a sewage-filled creek in Washington, D.C., deemed unsafe due to its high levels of bacteria,” said Marie Harf. “But RFK, who’s allegedly already survived a brain worm, clearly isn’t worried.”
She asked her co-host Katie Pavlich: “Katie, I think he also took his grandkids in with him?”
Pavlich replied, “Hey, it’s good for your immune system. I myself have swam in the Potomac.”
Harf interrupted, “I have, too!”
“It’s probably just as bad as this creek,” said Pavlich. “And I have a friend named Corey, and he ate a raw clam once from the bowels of the Potomac. He survived! So, I think it’s OK. It’s alright, you live a little. Enjoy, get outside. It can’t be worse than the tap water, come on.”
When asked if he would “swim in a sewage-filled creek,” Watters joined the chorus.
“That creek looks clean,” he said in another clip shared on social media. “It doesn’t look like it’s filled with sewage. And I have seen Pete Hegseth swim miles and miles in a Speedo in the Hudson River, which, like, you can’t even see through. This, you can see right through.”
Watters concluded, “I think it’s fine.”
Kennedy shared photos of his outing Sunday and announced that he took his grandkids, Bobcat and Cassius, to Dumbarton Oaks Park and swam with them in Rock Creek. The Washingtonian noted Monday that this is where a lot of the sewage from the capital flows.
The National Park Service website warns against swimming in Rock Creek due to the “high levels of bacteria and other infectious pathogens that make swimming, wading, and other contact with the water a hazard to human (and pet) health.”
However, social media wasn’t buying Watters and “The Five” crew’s take on Kennedy’s swim at Rock Creek as indicated by the brutal takedowns posted online.
So RFK Jr. is literally swimming in sewage — and Fox News isn’t asking why, instead they’re debating how clean the sh*t is?
— JT (@escapeeJT) May 13, 2025It’s people like Jesse that die of radiation poisoning because they can’t see it.
— Turnbull (@cturnbull1968) May 13, 2025Watters has outdone himself in the stupidity department.
— 𝐂𝐡𝐢𝐝𝐢 (@ChidiNwatu) May 13, 2025Thank goodness Jesse says it’s alright after objective evidence came out that there were high levels of fecal matter. He’s obvs an expert by his name alone!
— John Ashford (@Johnnyash5) May 13, 202520 Years Of Free Journalism
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Watters doesn't understand the whole concept of microbes. Beyond his intellectual capacity.
— Crazy Fenak (@CrazyFenaker) May 14, 2025Jesse should swim there. All the time. Every single day.
— Jo (@JoJoFromJerz) May 13, 2025