A White House spokesperson on Thursday called Fox News host Jesse Watters's comments that he has "had it" with Middle Eastern countries "hateful" and "unacceptable."

"I want to say something about Arab Americans and about the Muslim world," Watters said on an episode of The Five on Wednesday. "We — and when I say we I mean the West and Western technology — have created the Middle East. We made them rich. We got that oil out of the ground, our military protects all of these oil shipments flying around the world, making them rich. We fund their military. We respect their kings. We kill their terrorists. Okay? But we’ve had it. We’ve had it with them."

Representatives for Fox News did not comment when contacted for this story.

White House deputy press secretary Andrew Bates responded in a statement to The Messenger: “These hateful lies about ‘Arab Americans and ... the Muslim world’ highlight the urgency of President Biden’s work to ensure hate has no safe harbor in America, and why he committed to the first national anti-Islamophobia strategy in our history.