Fox News viewers question Jesse Watters’ “Antifa insider” and they’re not holding back

Fox News has denied claims that a recent interview with an “Antifa whistleblower” was actually conducted with an actor who also appeared on the conservative TV network as a former member of the Mexican mafia.

Last week, Fox News host Jesse Watters spoke to a partially masked man, identified only as “Eric”, who said he had been associated with Antifa for about 10 years until around a decade ago, when he renounced his affiliation.

What is Antifa?

Short for ‘anti-fascist’, Antifa is a loosely organized, decentralized political movement in the U.S., made up of individuals and groups who oppose fascism, white supremacy and far-right extremism. The name Antifa was originally used in the 1930s by the German anti-fascist group Antifaschistische Aktion.

Late last month, U.S. president Donald Trump issued an executive order designating Antifa a “domestic terrorist organization” - although experts have publicly cast doubt on Trump’s legal and constitutional ability to do so.

“I had Molotov cocktails in my bedroom”

In last week’s interview, Watters repeatedly sought to promote an image of Antifa as a violent group, asking “Eric” about “explosives and vandalism” and questioning the purported former member on whether he found violence to be the “core mission of the movement”.

“Eric” replied that he considered violence to be a “perk”, adding that he “for sure” got a kick out of it.

“You’re young and you’re idealistic and you feel like you don’t have a lot of control in your life, so if you can go out there and make yourself a hassle then that’s better than being an anonymous kid,” he said.

“Eric” also recalled: “I was ready to go, man. I had little Molotov cocktails in my bedroom and a copy of The Anarchist Cookbook that I had photocopied from a friend of mine’s older brother.”

“Just stunning”

In the days since Watters’ interview, however, observers have pointed to an apparent physical likeness between “Eric” and Ramón “Mundo” Mendoza, a Mexican former mafioso who spoke to the Fox News host - having also concealed part of his face - in late 2023.

The social-media account Decoding Fox News, which is run by the journalist Juliet Jeske, posted on Monday: “Last week Jesse Watters spoke to man named Eric who claimed he was formerly a member of antifa. Two years ago Watters interviewed Ramon ‘Mundo’ Mendoza, a former Mexican Mafia member. Some folks thought the men looked similar. This is a side by side comparison.”

On the progressive political talk-show The Majority Report, Sam Seder described the two interviewees’ seeming similarity as “just stunning”.

One listener to the show commented: “The bad thing is, Fox News audience ARE dumb enough to believe this.” The network is “not even trying anymore”, another added, while a further commenter declared: “This is the worst acting ever”.

Internet speculation has even arisen that Robert O’Neill, a former Navy SEAL member who participated in the killing of Osama bin Laden in 2011, is the individual actually behind the mask in both interviews.

In a statement to The Independent’s Justin Baragona, Fox News insisted that the two interviewees are not a single individual posing as “Eric” and Mendoza. The network also directly rebuffed the O’Neill rumors.

Internet users have claimed the masked man in the Mendoza interview has “the most egregious fake [Mexican] accent ever”. However, Baragona cautions that there is clear evidence that the individual in the 2023 Fox News interview was indeed Mendoza, who wrote the 2012 memoir Mexican Mafia: The Gang of Gangs.

“Whenever he has been photographed or sat down for a taped interview, Mendoza has donned a black ski mask similar to the one he wore for his on-air conversation with Watters,” Baragona explained. “Additionally, he exhibits the same slight Hispanic accent and speech cadence in his other interviews”.

Other voices who have publicly doubted the claims against Watters and Fox News include Jaqueline Sweet, an investigative journalist for outlets such as Rolling Stone, The Guardian and Politico.

“I don’t think they are the same man,” Sweet said. “Everyone is now primed to hear the two voices as being the same but they actually aren’t in my opinion. That’s how the human brain works, bias and priming.”

And Jeske herself has warned that there is no concrete proof of deception by Fox News. “Again please find the language where I said it’s definitely the same person,” she said on X, in reply to another user of the social-media platform.

“Not only will you not find it in the tweet you won’t find it in my comments on any platform. I merely present the clips side by side because so many people thought it looked suspicious.

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