Longtime Fox News personality Jesse Watters called for the bombing of the United Nations headquarters in New York City on Sept. 23 following teleprompter and escalator malfunctions that plagued President Donald Trump‘s visit for the General Assembly earlier that day.

During Tuesday’s episode of Fox talk show The Five, Watters spoke about Trump’s teleprompter cutting out at the beginning of his speech at the U.N. In the moment, the president addressed the issues, saying, “Whoever’s operating this teleprompter is in big trouble.”

Watters also noted Trump’s complaint that an escalator at the U.N. headquarters froze as he and first lady Melania Trump stepped onto it, forcing them to walk up the steps.

The Fox host claimed that U.N. staffers “sabotaged” the escalator and the teleprompter, calling the malfunctions “an insurrection and what we need to do is either leave the U.N. or we need to bomb it.”

Following the remark, Watters’ co-hosts could be heard off-camera chuckling, while one reacted with an “mmm” noise.

“[The U.N. headquarters] is in New York, though, right? Could be some fallout there. Maybe gas it?” Watters continued as The Five hosts could still be heard laughing.

“Let’s not do that,” The Five co-host Dana Perino, 53, retorted off-camera.

Watters, 47, continued: “Don’t gas it. Okay, but we need to destroy it. Maybe can we demolish the building? Have everybody leave and then we’ll demolish the building.”

Watters, Perino, and co-host Greg Gutfeld, 61, then joked about turning the U.N. building into “affordable housing.” Said Watters, ultimately, “No, this is absolutely unacceptable, and I hope they get to the bottom of it, and I hope they really injure, emotionally, the people that did it.”

The comment sparked backlash on social media, with some calling for Watters’ firing.

A U.N. spokesperson addressed the escalator incident on Tuesday, explaining that a videographer from the American delegation accidentally triggered the escalator’s stop mechanism, which resulted in the issue.

“The safety mechanism is designed to prevent people or objects accidentally being caught and stuck in or pulled into the gearing,” Stéphane Dujarric said in a statement.

A separate anonymous source told ABC News that the teleprompter was being operated by someone from the White House, not a member of the U.N. staff.

Still, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told Fox News on Tuesday that the White House will investigate whether the malfunctions happened on purpose.

Leavitt also wrote on X, “If someone at the U.N. intentionally stopped the escalator … they need to be fired and investigated immediately.”

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During Trump’s speech on Wednesday, he opened by criticizing the U.N. itself.

“Empty words don’t solve wars… A bad escalator and a bad teleprompter is all I got from the United Nations,” he complained.

On the topic of immigration, Trump bragged “i’m really good at this stuff” before bluntly telling those gathered, “Your countries are going to hell.”

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