Is Jesse Watters’ masked antifa man additionally his masked Mexican Mafia man? The fact behind the web rumor | EUROtoday

Fox News’ Jesse Watters has come below hearth in current days over a current interview with a masked man who claims to be an “Antifa whistleblower,” with media observers and critics speculating that the visitor additionally posed as an ex-Mexican Mafia member for a 2023 phase.

While on-line hypothesis has gone into overdrive that the 2 males are the identical man, and plenty of have even claimed the person who purportedly shot Osama bin Laden was the individual behind the masks, it appears extremely unlikely that that is the case.

A Fox News spokesperson advised The Independent that the individual behind the masks within the two interviews was not Robert O’Neill, the previous SEAL Team Six member who was a part of the bin Laden raid in 2011 and likewise a former Fox News contributor. The community additionally confirmed that the visitors within the two separate interviews will not be the identical individual.

Ramon “Mundo” Mendoza – the masked former Mexican Mafia hitman whom Watters introduced on in December 2023 to debate the jail stabbing of Derek Chauvin – has written a number of books and sat down for in depth interviews about his time in La eMe, a infamous Mexican jail gang and arranged crime outfit.

Whenever he has been photographed or sat down for a taped interview, Mendoza has donned a black ski masks just like the one he wore for his on-air dialog with Watters. Additionally, he reveals the identical slight Hispanic accent and speech cadence in his different interviews, equivalent to a 90-minute dialogue – alongside former Mexican Mafia member Rene “Boxer” Enriquez – with the favored YouTube channel Soft White Underbelly this previous February.

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In reality, Mendoza has been a reasonably distinguished determine for many years now. The 75-year-old appeared to first draw discover for a 1982 one-on-one interview with ex-FBI Director Clarence Kelly for a tv particular. Appearing unmasked throughout the almost hour-long dialog, Mendoza mentioned with Kelly what he wanted to do to show himself to different jail inmates and what it really meant to be a hitman.

Mendoza, who grew to become a authorities informant after leaving the Mexican Mafia, has been quoted by newspapers and media retailers as an knowledgeable on La eMe since a minimum of the early Nineties, with the Los Angeles Times turning to him on a frequent foundation.

Mendoza, who says he joined La eMe whereas serving time in San Quentin state jail throughout the early Seventies, was additionally the idea of one of many main characters within the 1992 movie American Mewhich is a fictionalized account of the rise of the Mexican Mafia within the California penal system from the Nineteen Fifties by way of the Eighties.

Besides authoring a number of books about his life story and the way La eMe has exploited the jail system, he’s additionally the topic of the 2018 movie Hitman Worldwhich is predicated on his 2012 memoir Mexican Mafia: Gang of Gangs – From Altar Boy to Hitman.

Still, regardless of Mendoza’s a long time of notoriety, his passing resemblance to a masked man that Watters spoke with final week led to widespread allegations that the Fox News star had dressed up the identical man to pose as each a hitman-turned-informant and a former Antifa member who now denounces the leftist protest motion.

Bringing on a person merely named “Eric,” who wore a inexperienced baseball cap and a black bandana that lined most of his face, Watters stated that his visitor was a part of Antifa for 10 years and was disguising himself “to protect his life.”

Throughout the interview, which was aimed primarily at portraying the anti-fascist political motion as extraordinarily violent amid the continued anti-ICE demonstrations in Portland, Watters saved probing Eric about “what kind of violence were you guys getting into” and whether or not that included “explosives and vandalism.”

At one level within the dialogue, Eric revealed that he stopped figuring out with Antifa round 2014 or 2015 after being concerned for roughly a decade, having beforehand said that he had joined the motion “around ninth grade.” Therefore, this might probably place his present age someplace within the mid-30s, or about 40 years youthful than Mendoza.

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Days after Watters’ Thursday interview with “Eric,” a social media put up by researcher Juliet Jeske – who runs the account Decoding Fox News – sparked a flood of hypothesis that Watters had turned to the identical man to pose as each the “antifa whistleblower” and Mendoza.

Jeske’s comparability of the 2 interviews got here after the Watters’ phase on Antifa prompted quite a few anti-Trump influencers – notably Rick Wilson and MeidasTouch founder Brett Meiselas – to recommend that Fox News had dressed up a “production intern” to painting the so-called whistleblower

“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,” she posted on Monday, sharing a two-minute mash-up clip from the 2 interviews.

While agreeing with others – equivalent to MeidasTouch editor-in-chief Ron Filipkowski – that Mendoza’s “Mexican accent needs work” and that it “waned in the short segment,” Jeske made a degree of noting that she was not definitively stating that the 2 visitors have been the identical individual.

“Again please find the language where I said it’s definitely the same person. 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,” Jeske responded to the X account Rogue Potus Staff, who accused her of “pushing a lie.”

Though different journalists, equivalent to investigative reporter Jacqueline Sweet, expressed warning to others about blindly believing the 2 males are the identical individual, quite a few distinguished progressive personalities jumped on board and embraced the chance that this was all a hoax.

“This is just stunning. First off, I just want you to start to contemplate the idea that someone from the Mexican Mafia would go on to Jesse Watters’ program,” The Majority Report host Sam Seder stated throughout a prolonged Monday phase dedicated to the topic. “Also, think about you’re a member of antifa… and also you’re on the market and also you’re like, ‘Hmm, I want to get my message out. Who do I go to? Oh, Jesse Watters, of course, because I know I can trust these guys at Fox News with any information that would maybe tie me to antifa right now.’”

Amid the Zapruder film-type analysis over the similarities between the two guests’ eyes and talking types, on-line conspiracy theories started percolating concerning the “real” id of the Antifa soldier/Mexican gang hitman.

“Some conspiracy theorists suggested that the man was former Navy SEAL and Osama Bin Laden killer Robert J. O’Neill, pointing to O’Neill’s similar eyes and former position as a contributor at Fox News,” Mediaite famous. “Others theorized without evidence that the masked man was Hollywood star Michael Rapaport or professional wrestler Jon Moxley.”