'F**k Your Feelings': Comedian Savagely Mocks Cindy Hyde-Smith's Office Ahead of a Senate Defeat

The Associated Press had not yet called Mississippi's Senate race when comedian Walter Masterson told staff in Republican Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith's Washington office that she had lost her seat. The video, posted on 11 November, showed a false election announcement made two days before the result was officially declared.

Democrat Scott Colom secured victory in the 3 November election. The Associated Press declared him the winner on 11 November, after days of counting outstanding ballots.

According to Primetimer's account of the video, Masterson and his companions entered Hyde-Smith's office two days before the race was called. Their announcement was premature, although Colom ultimately won.

Walter Masterson's Prank Targets Senate Staff

The footage reportedly shows Masterson asking staff whether they have heard the news. A woman accompanying him claims the Associated Press has called the election for Colom, although the agency had not made such an announcement.

Masterson then tells those present that Hyde-Smith has lost. The senator is not shown in the encounter, leaving members of her office team to respond to the visitors' claim.

As the group leaves, Masterson says, 'They picked a new senator. Good job, Scott.' The announcement was part of a staged exchange, not a genuine delivery of election news.

A companion later acknowledged the deception, according to the supplied report, saying, 'We lied, and now they're all scrambling to check this.' The line summed up the video's premise: presenting an unconfirmed outcome as established fact.

Online reactions were divided. Some viewers appeared amused, while others objected to making office employees the targets of an election joke. Critics argued that staff should not be personally blamed for their employer's political positions.

Responding to criticism online, Masterson invoked the phrase 'f**k your feelings' and accused detractors of being overly sensitive. The remark was a subsequent response, not an established quotation from his conversation with the office staff.

How a Beef Price Remark Became Campaign Ammunition

The prank also referred to a remark that had troubled Hyde-Smith's re-election campaign for months.

During a 22 February interview with WLOX journalist Hugh Keeton, Hyde-Smith was questioned about rising food costs, particularly the price of beef. She responded that consumers had 'so many proteins to choose from'.

Colom's campaign turned the comment into an October advertisement featuring voters asking why they should change what they eat. Its message was that, rather than choosing a different protein, voters could choose a different senator.

In a later WLOX interview, Hyde-Smith said she had been contrasting food shopping, where cheaper alternatives might exist, with petrol, for which motorists had fewer substitutes.

The cost of living remained central to Colom's campaign. NPR reported that the Democratic candidate used the nickname 'Cindy High-Prices' to attack the incumbent's record.

Colom became Mississippi's first Black senator-elect since Reconstruction and the first Democrat elected to the state's US Senate delegation since 1982.

When the Associated Press called the race, Colom led by 4,669 votes out of 962,237 counted. The agency said additional ballots from Jackson County had strengthened his lead enough to project a winner.

Hyde-Smith conceded after the Associated Press called the race, congratulating Colom and acknowledging the voters' decision. Her defeat was real; Masterson's early announcement was not.