When Fox News host turned U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Jeanine Pirro dropped a high-profile case and acknowledged the alleged vandalism of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool had not occurred, she left her former colleague Jesse Watters out to dry. Watters had repeatedly portrayed the supposed vandals as America-hating leftists bent on destroying the country, devoting several segments to the story in increasingly explicit terms.

President Donald Trump has strenuously and repeatedly blamed “Deranged Vandals” for damaging the pool after he ordered its renovation and repainting earlier this year — even as reporting from as early as May pointed to problems with the work of the installer, who received a lucrative no-bid contract. The president claimed the purported culprits should face “years in jail.”

But on Friday, Pirro’s office moved to dismiss charges against David Hearn — a former Olympic canoeist arrested after sticking his hands in the pool and the only person to face a felony charge over the damage — along with three misdemeanor cases, citing new evidence “showing that the damage was the result of a botched installation and not vandalism.”

The motion to dismiss stresses that the Department of Interior provided the initial reports that were the basis for Hearn’s indictment — but only later “provided additional documents” showing the damage “was the result of flawed installation by the contractor, Atlantic Industrial Coatings (“AIC”), and the rush to complete the project prior to events associated with the America 250 celebration in the weeks surrounding Independence Day 2026.”

(Trump subsequently posted that he disagreed “100%” with Pirro, and on Monday he publicly maligned her in the Oval Office; he is now reportedly considering removing her in response, because in this administration, telling the truth when it contradicts the president is a fireable offense.)

While Hearn’s indictment — and the case’s apparent demise — may seem like a sideshow, it presents an important window into how this administration and its propaganda apparatus operate. Federal prosecutors have tried but often failed to carry out Trump’s demands that his real or imagined foes face legal punishment, and those political prosecutions often rely on support from the president’s media allies.

No one in MAGA media had carried more water for the baseless claims about the Reflecting Pool than Watters, who is uniquely positioned to serve as a vessel for such propaganda campaigns: He hosts or co-hosts two of Fox’s premiere programs and is a hardcore Trumpist who lacks both ideological moorings and basic moral scruples. Watters previously plumbed the depths of the internet fever swamps to peddle deranged conspiracy theories about the home invasion and assault of Paul Pelosi, the husband of former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA).

The Fox host initially celebrated Trump’s effort to repaint the pool as part of a grand struggle over our national identity during a June 12 discussion on The Five — after algae turned the pool green and damage to its surface became apparent, but before Hearn’s arrest.

Watters argued that the left was “purposely subverting the greatness of America, the bedrock of Western civilization,” by allowing the pool and other national icons to “go into disrepair.” By contrast, he argued that Trump was attempting to preserve “a physical and visual reminder of our greatness and our connection to our European heritage.”

When Trump began claiming that vandals were responsible for damage to the pool and Pirro charged Hearn, Watters fit that allegation into his preexisting narrative and assailed “Democrats” and “the left” for what they had supposedly done. But on Friday night, after Pirro’s office moved to dismiss the charges, he did not mention on his show that his account was all wet.

Watters pushes Trump, Department of Interior pool “vandals” story

Watters began promoting Trump’s allegations that the pool had been vandalized on June 22, while still leaving space for the possibility that the damage had been caused by faulty installation.

“On the Reflecting Pool, Trump said that they have evidence of someone slicing and dicing the bottom of the pool and that evidence will be shown in court,” he told resident Democratic panelist Jessica Tarlov on The Five. “And that we have made five arrests. Five individuals are under investigation and I'm waiting to see the video evidence of it. Or they botched the redo. OK. Either way, this is all you got on this guy?”

“Liberals would never vandalize public works — did you see BLM, the statues, the graffiti?” Watters continued.

“You guys make a job out of destroying cities,” he went on to say. “Look at Penn Station. It's a horrible place to be. And you're pointing a finger at a pool he's trying to make better. Come on, Jessica.”

“Did the contractors boot it? We don't know,” Watters added that night on his own program. “But the president says people are pouring chemicals into the Reflecting Pool, carving up the bottom with knives. Not only is the National Guard standing watch, but concerned citizens are keeping an eye out for sabotage.”

“The Park Police arrested a former Olympic canoer,” he added, referring to Hearn. “Records show he's an Obama donor who's been arrested by Park Police before. The Olympian Democrat donor was charged with a misdemeanor, destruction of government property, and he told the AP he is just a concerned citizen. While this curious and concerned citizen is now being repped by one of the most famous Democrat lawyers in the country. I think we know what is going on here.”

The following night, Watters led his primetime show with “the tapes” he said had been provided by the Department of Interior that he claimed provide “a look at individuals suspected of vandalizing the Reflecting Pool.”

“Now we haven't been able to verify the video, but take a look,” he said, before airing and describing it.

“Maybe the contractors screwed up the pool, and they're fixing it, but we have a hunch there was also foul play,” he added. “We could be wrong, but we're seeing preliminary reports alleging vandalism.”

He later referenced Hearn, “the canoer who says he did nothing wrong,” calling him “a longtime Democrat donor, gave money to Obama and ActBlue, arrested by Park Police once before, back in ‘96, and now he has a GoFundMe and a lawyer who just happened to have prosecuted Trump in the first impeachment.”

While Watters carefully hedged his discussion, he left no question about which theory he believed. “Now, while the left is out there taking a knife to America, literally, the rest of the world can't get enough of it,” he said as he transitioned to a discussion of tourists praising the country as they visited it for the first time.

That pool is America's mirror,” he went on to say. “We look in it and we love what we see — we're looking at ourselves, our history, our heritage — and the left hates everything they see. They want it broken and murky. They don't want it to reflect the greatness of the nation. They don't believe America was ever great, and they don't believe we can make America great again.”

“We shouldn't need foreigners to remind America who we are, and vandals will never be able to damage the American identity,” he concluded.

Watters then brought on actor Kelsey Grammer, who suggested that the purported Reflecting Pool vandalism shows that “a virus that has infected some — a very small number of people, I think, who just want to tear things down. They have been consumed by hatred, and, of course, hatred ends up basically destroying you.”

Two days later, Watters went off the deep end.

“The Democrats are ripping up the Reflecting Pool,” he claimed on The Five. “Now, a couple days ago, a lot of people at this table pooh-poohed the idea that you guys would vandalize the pool, but now we have hard evidence reported by The New York Times and the Park Police, because I've looked at all the reports.”

He went on to say that Hearn “got caught pulling up while he videotaped himself ripping up the bottom.”

That night, Watters suggested on his own show that the vandalism had now been proven based on a single anonymous source who spoke to him.

“A senior official confirming someone cut the liner along the bottom of the pool and took the sealant with it,” he said. “We don't know who did it, but we have a pretty good idea where to start looking,” he added, pointing viewers back to the “exclusive” video the Department of Interior had provided to Jesse Watters Primetime.

The host went on to claim that “Primetime is collecting police reports like baseball cards” and touted his “look at some preliminary documents.”

Watters and Trump’s “favorite attack dog” Pirro team up to promote pool charge

A week later, after Pirro’s office initially secured its indictment against Hearn, Watters’ former co-host on The Five went on his show for a curtain call.

“Fox News Alert: I hope Democrats enjoyed their little pool party, because Judge Jeanine just shut it down,” Watters said to introduce the segment. Trump “was fed up watching his new Reflecting Pool get savaged, so he sent his favorite attack dog to bite back — and she came armed with an indictment.”

After a brief debate over who missed the other more, Watters told Pirro: “A lot of people, when this first happened with the pool, didn't believe the president that there was vandalism. That's not the case.”

“Yes, it is not the case at all,” Pirro replied. “In fact, I was at the Reflecting Pool yesterday. There not only is a vandalism that is reflected in today's indictment, but there is a cutting of the liner of the pool, at the base of the pool for several yards across the pool.”

“And someone was intent on doing incredible damage to the pool, but what we've seen after are other people who want to do continuing damage,” she continued. “And one of the biggest problems, and one of the ugliest things that I think is out there are people trying to destroy monuments and statues — you know, part of our history.”

"We saw a lot of this start around the BLM riots — we never really saw people tear down statues in this country before,” Watters claimed. He later asked Pirro: “Why do you think that's taken hold, where they want to destroy these big, beautiful monuments, they want to deface the Reflecting Pool and topple Columbus?”

“Well, I think that people, they resent this country,” she replied. “They don't respect the country. We celebrate the country and the freedoms — they hate it. They hate the leader right now, and they are exercising, as far as I'm concerned, political violence.”

“This is not about free speech,” she concluded. “This is not anything that is justified, and we've got to make sure they understand. They are going to be made accountable, and in D.C. they will be.”

“I’m sure they will be,” Watters replied.

But as Pirro’s office now acknowledges, the case didn’t hold water.

Reprinted with permission from Media Matters