Fox News’s Jessica Tarlov went off on co-host Jesse Watters after the latter denied a demonstrable fact about the lenient deal a child molester received in Texas.

Attorney General Ken Paxton, who is the Republican nominee for Senate in Texas, has come under fire after his office agreed to a plea deal for former Waco attorney Adam Hoffman. In June 2025, Hoffman went on trial for first-degree felony continuous sexual abuse of a young child. A friend of Hoffman’s son testified that the ex-lawyer sexually assaulted him multiple times over three years, starting when the child was in the third grade. The trial ended with a 7-5 hung jury. Hoffman was facing a possible sentence of life without parole.

After the mistrial, Hoffman reached a plea agreement with Paxton’s office and was sentenced to 60 days in jail. He ended up serving 29 days.

During Thursday’s edition of The Five, Tarlov defended Paxton’s opponent, Democratic state Rep. James Talarico, and brought up the Hoffman plea deal. As she spoke, Watters interrupted and falsely claimed that the plea agreement story was “debunked.” Co-host Greg Gutfeld also insisted the story was fake:

TARLOV: …James Talarico [was] standing outside Paxton’s office asking about how this admitted child molester Hoffman got a deal where he was only in jail for 29 years. Someone who literally said, “I molested a child.” And he didn’t have to register as a sex offender.

WATTERS: That’s been debunked.

TARLOV: It hasn’t been debunked, actually.

WATTERS: We’ve been debunking it for weeks.

TARLOV: No.

GUTFELD: Yeah.

TARLOV: It’s literally what happened! The guy admitted to doing it! Listen to the mother talking about it.

WATTERS: We don’t have time to explain it to you.

Paxton defeated Sen. John Cornyn in the Republican primary after receiving an endorsement from President Donald Trump.

Watch above via Fox News.

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