(DCNF)—Fox News host Jesse Watters on Thursday lambasted members of Gen Z who supported left-wing Democrats, questioning if they did so out of “laziness.”
Left-wing Democrats aligned with the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) recently won multiple primary elections in New York and Colorado — in some cases defeating established incumbents — with the support of Gen Z voters. Following a ten-minute monologue by Watters taking aim at elected officials and candidates backed by the left-wing group, he and White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt debated whether Gen Z backed DSA-affiliated candidates out of “laziness.”
“Some of these kids— and I call them ‘kids’ because they’re in their 20s and they’ve never had real jobs and they’re complaining things are expensive. Yes, things are expensive when you don’t have a real job. Do you think that’s getting traction, complaining?” Watters asked Leavitt after the two of them discussed the rise of the DSA’s influence in the Democratic Party.
“Unfortunately, I do, because this generation — my generation, I hate to say it — Gen Z and those younger than me, have been raised with just silver spoons in their mouths, just getting everything handed to them,” Leavitt responded. “That’s not the values this country was [sic] built on. It was built on meritocracy and hard work, pulling up your sleeves, pulling yourself up from your bootstraps, and achieving the American dream. And we need to protect it with all we got.”
Leavitt appeared to blame “liberal indoctrination” more than “laziness” for the members of Generation Z backing left-wing candidates when discussing the trend with Watters.
“Is it laziness?” Watters asked, with Leavitt responding, “A little bit.”
“Is it because the professor said, ‘[The] country’s corrupt, it’s evil, and we just need to shake them down, hand money out’?” Watters followed up.
“It’s laziness and it’s the liberal indoctrination,” Leavitt replied. “You bring up a great point about our education system.”
The Daily Caller News Foundation reached out to the White House for comment.
Members of Generation Z were born between 1997 and 2012, according to Beresford Research, a market research firm based out of Annapolis, Md. The Center for Generational Kinetics additionally notes this generation was particularly affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. In particular, significant gaps in learning emerged from the prevalence of remote learning as opposed to in-person schooling among the generation, which grew up with smartphones and social media.
Leavitt and Watters’s comments drew fire from Nalin Haley, the 24-year-old son of former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley.
“Ironically, calling an entire generation lazy instead of addressing real problems with cost of living, housing, and employment…IS LAZY. It’s tough even for people that work hard, save, and have good jobs,” Haley posted Friday to X. “The goal of every generation is to leave it better than you found it. That’s simply not happening.”
“Even as a young person, the country I grew up in is becoming unrecognizable. It’s not complaining to want the same quality of life as our parents and grandparents,” Haley continued. “I have yet to see Democrats or Republicans address this issue properly. Economically, they’re one and the same because they’re both controlled by elites and corporate interests. The party that actually starts listening to real everyday Americans first is the party of the future.”
The Department of the Treasury in December 2024 reported the costs of “housing, childcare, healthcare and education” had exceeded the growth in wages since 1990, while non-housing debt almost doubled from 1989 to 2022. Furthermore, many in Generation Z are still living with their parents, according to the agency’s study.
During the Biden administration, inflation hit levels not seen in four decades, with prices rising by over 20%, while the Consumer Price Index (CPI) reached a high of 9% in June 2022. Some experts believed the Biden administration’s hostility to fossil fuel production and massive spending helped fuel such price increases.
Unemployment rates for members of Generation Z have also been higher than the national average, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). The unemployment rate for those aged 16-19 reached 14.6% in June 2026, while those aged 20-24 were found to have had an unemployment rate of 7.1%, compared to an overall unemployment rate of 4.2%.
When the first members of Generation Z were born in 1997, the national debt was $5.7 trillion, according to U.S. Debt Clock. The national debt as of Thursday was $39.375 trillion, an increase of nearly 591%.
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