What were you thinking?

With so much upheaval over at Fox News, regarding the misogynistic attitudes of their male personalities – issues that have resulted in millions being paid out in lawsuits and the exit of longtime Fox News CEO Roger Ailes, and top-rated personality, Bill O’Reilly – you would think those left would want to keep their heads down and avoid even the appearance of impropriety.

Apparently, Jesse Watters either missed the memo, or he just wants to move on to life after Fox.

This week kicked off the new lineup over at Fox, with the adjustments made after O’Reilly’s departure.

Watters was just three days into his new primetime slot with “The Five,” when he completely stepped in it.

What he was thinking… who knows?

Watters is probably best known for his “Watters’ World” segments on the now-defunct “The O’Reilly Factor.”

He’s supposed to be the funny guy, but this wasn’t funny, as much as it was just dumb, on his part.

During a segment on Tuesday night, Watters remarked on the way that President Trump’s daughter held a microphone while she discussed women’s rights at a panel in Germany.

“It’s funny. The left says they really respect women and then when given an opportunity to respect a woman like that they boo and hiss … so I don’t really get what’s going on here, but I really liked how she was speaking into that microphone,” Watters said.

Watters gestured with his hand toward his mouth as he made the remark and then grinned at his co-hosts.

I’m groaning just reading it.

For those that aren’t getting it, the suggestion was some juvenile attempt to equate the mic with a phallic symbol. Just go from there.

Still, Watters insisted on Wednesday that people misunderstood his intent.

“During the break, we were commenting on Ivanka’s voice and how it was low and steady and resonates like a smooth jazz radio DJ,” he said. “This was in no way a joke about anything else.”

So, saying something along the lines of, “She’s got a smooth, jazz radio DJ thing going with her voice. I like it” was out of the question?

It’s possible that Watters is telling the truth and he simply chose the most questionable verbiage imaginable, given the very recent happenings with Fox News, but if he’s that devoid of caution and commonsense, he may need a bit of time away from the spotlight.

It seems like he knows it, too.

Thursday morning, Watters announced he’s going on “vacation.”

That’s right. “The Five” couldn’t get a full week of programming in without losing somebody.

Said Watters in a statement:

“I’m going to be taking a vacation with my family, so I’m not going to be here tomorrow,” Watters said during his show, according to reports. “I’ll be back on Monday, so don’t miss me too much.”

So for the remainder of the week, as well as the weekend program, he’ll be off the Fox grid.

I can’t help but recall that before the axe fell for Bill O’Reilly, he took a “vacation,” too.

I’m betting that Watters will be back, not because he’s being given a pass. The network will not want to give the impression that the culture of misogyny is so engrained with Fox that they can’t go a full week without somebody saying or doing something offensive towards women, even after a major shakeup. They want people to believe that they’ve got things under control and Watters was just a hiccup.

Watters is probably going to spend his whole “vacation” in training seminars and getting his butt chewed on by executives with 21^st Century Fox.

If I’m wrong, the other alternative is Watters suddenly appears as O’Reilly’s wacky sidekick on his podcast.