Jesse Watters Insists Howard Stern Can't Possibly Be 'Woke': 'I Like Him'

Fox News host Jesse Watters cannot seem to accept that Howard Stern might be proud to call himself “woke.”

The radio shock jock declared on his SiriusXM show on Monday that “I hear that a lot, that I’m not good anymore because I’m woke.” But he said he takes it as a compliment, if being “woke” means not backing Donald Trump , supporting transgender people and believing in the COVID-19 vaccines.

“I am woke, motherfucker, and I love it,” he said. “I want to be awake. I want to read legitimate news sources. Here’s how woke I am: I believe the election was not rigged.”

Stern accurately described the types of views that tend to elicit the label from conservatives, but Watters insisted Stern just doesn’t get it.

“I listened to his show since the ’90s. I like him. I think he’s a funny guy. He doesn’t understand what woke is,” Watters said on “The Five.” “He’s not woke when it comes to political correctness, when it comes to gender, when it comes to race, when it comes to feminism. He’s not woke when it comes to any of that stuff.”

Indeed, Stern has a deeply problematic history, including racist and misogynistic remarks. In recent years, he has claimed that he’s “evolved” and cringes at his shock-jock antics from the 1980s and ’90s, though there’s plenty he hasn’t apologized for.

Watters admitted that Stern has changed, but insisted he’s still “extremely edgy” and “not politically correct.”

The other panel members on “The Five” weren’t happy with Stern’s remarks, according to Mediaite . Greg Gutfeld, for his part, told Watters to “crawl out of his butt.”

The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines  “woke” as being “aware of and actively attentive to important societal facts and issues (especially issues of racial and social justice).”

However, right wingers have repurposed the term  as a culture war catchall to attack progressive values; education about race, gender and LGBTQ rights; those who believe in science, particularly issues relating to climate change and vaccine efficacy ; and just about anything else they don’t like .