Jesse Watters rebuts Jen Psaki blaming COVID for crime: 'Has nothing to do with the coronavirus'

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'The Five' react to Democrats doubling down on rising crime

'The Five' react to smash-and-grab thefts and rising violent crime in Democratic cities

Jesse Watters clapped back at White House press secretary Jen Psaki's claim that attributed some blame of rising crime to the novel coronavirus pandemic on "The Five" Tuesday.

"Psaki knows the crime rate in Philly … Homicides have gone up since 2018 every single year. And … the coronavirus started in 2020, so that has nothing to do with the coronavirus," he said.

When asked by Fox News' Peter Doocy about smash-and-grab thefts and whether it was because of COVID-19, Psaki responded, "I think the root cause in a lot of communities is the pandemic. Yes."

Peter Doocy questions White House press secretary Jen Psaki at the White House on immigration. (Fox News) (Fox News)

Psaki, however, later backtracked.

"I am not … going to give an assessment for every … reason for crime in different communities across the country," she said. "What I have noted … is that there has been an increase in crime since the start of the pandemic. I will let others assess with the reason for that increase in crime is … All I was conveying yesterday."

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Watters also reacted to Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner downplaying crime amid record homicides. "We don’t have a crisis of lawlessness, we don’t have a crisis of crime, we don’t have a crisis of violence," Krasner claimed.

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The district attorney later apologized for "unintentionally" hurting people with his words.

PHILADELPHIA, PA - DECEMBER 30:   Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner addresses the media on December 30, 2019 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. (Photo by Mark Makela/Getty Images) (Mark Makela/Getty Images)

Watters said Krasner is lucky to have a biased local media on his side.

"But good thing Uncle Larry has the press because the Philly Inquirer came out [with an article] today – you're not going to believe what the headline was," he said. "'Republicans pounced when D.A. Larry Krasner said Philly doesn't have a crisis.' It's about Republicans pouncing."

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"Maybe defunding police wasn't such a great idea," Watters continued. "You have to fight crime. You can't just accept crime as part of your life. Democrats don't understand it. People are going to keep committing felonies. You just have to lock them up and make sure that they don't keep doing that."

Demonstrators hold a sign reading "Defund the police" on March 23, in Rochester, New York, U.S. September 6, 2020. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid (REUTERS/Brendan McDermid)

He concluded that it would take a high-profile attack or Democrats losing elections to change their soft-on-crime policies.

"Democrats still wouldn't do anything differently until they lost an election," Watters said. "That's the only thing … that's going to change that."