The California gubernatorial election to replace the term-limited Gavin Newsom is over a year away, but the statewide race now has national attention thanks to a viral clip of one Dem hopeful totally faceplanting on her response to what should have been a simple question about voters.
California Democratic gubernatorial candidate and former U.S. representative Katie Porter made headlines for all the wrong reasons Tuesday evening after an exchange from a recent interview showing her repeatedly lashing out at a reporter spread across social media.
On Wednesday’s show, Megyn was joined by Link Lauren, host of MK Media’s Spot On, to discuss Porter’s implosion and what it means for her campaign.
The Interview
No stranger to controversy (she has been accused by staff creating a toxic work environment and her ex-husband of domestic abuse in addition to her public clashes Capitol Hill), Porter is an ex-Orange County congresswoman who left her House seat last year to unsuccessfully challenge now-Sen. Adam Schiff for the U.S. Senate seat vacated by the late Dianne Feinstein.
She has since emerged as the early frontrunner to succeed Newsom, but that frontrunner status may be in jeopardy after her bizarre performance in an interview with CBS News California journalist Julie Watts. The reporter has been interviewing all the gubernatorial candidates with the same set of questions, and Porter appears to be the only thus far who has had an issue.
“What do you say to the 40 percent of California voters who you’ll need in order to win, who voted for [President Donald] Trump,” Watts asked at the beginning of what turned into a tense three-minute exchange.
Porter immediately disagreed with the premise. “How would I need them in order to win, ma’am,” she shot back with a disapproving snicker.
“Well, unless you think you’re going to get 60 percent of the vote,” Watts replied in reference to the voter breakdown in the Golden State, before Porter started laughing again.
For a brief moment, Porter actually answered the question, talking about winning a “purple” swing district in Orange County during her time in Congress. “I have stood on my own two feet and won Republican votes before, and that’s not something every candidate in this race can say,” she noted.
But that contradicted her initial retort, which Watts didn’t let her off the hook for. The reporter pointed out that Porter “just said you don’t need those Trump voters,” which led the former congresswoman to claim the interview was “unnecessarily argumentative.”
Watts reminded Porter that she has been asking every gubernatorial candidate the same question, but Porter wasn’t interested. “I don’t want to keep doing this, I’m going to call it. Thank you,” Porter said while moving to remove her mic.
But rather than actually end the interview, Porter continued to sit there and berate Watts for there being “seven follow ups to every single question you ask.” When Watts reminded Porter that she was just doing her job, the ex-rep lambasted the vibes. “I don’t want to have an unhappy experience with you, and I don’t want this all on camera,” she whined.
‘Compelling’ Chaos
Porter’s primary opponents seized on her behavior in the clip, as did social media users on both sides of the aisle who struggled to make sense of why the politician was so incapable of answering what should have been a simple – and expected – question about reaching across aisle to appeal to voters.
“That is a softball question… [and she] could not handle the thought of talking directly to Republicans at all. I mean, it completely froze her brain. Instead, she tried to shut down the interview,” Megyn noted. “My own take on it is Katie Porter’s not ready for primetime. That’s obvious… But I will say there was something mildly antagonistic about Julie Watts that I loved.”
What made the back and forth “so compelling,” in Megyn’s view, is that Watts “didn’t give one inch” and Porter was left to flounder. “[She] knew she had humiliated herself and kept looking for the moral high ground… She was desperately trying to get there, and just never could,” Megyn said. “She obviously ended her campaign. I mean, what Californian would vote for that?”
Lauren agreed that the interview will be difficult to come back from, but he offered a pro tip in case Porter finds herself in another “unhappy experience” with a reporter. “If you’re going to do a walk off… you’ve got to walk off… You guys need to watch Andy Cohen,” he quipped. “You can’t kind of walk off, and then stay. Either walk off, or don’t do the BS and the theatrics at all.”
You can check out Megyn’s full interview with Lauren by tuning in to episode 1,167 on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you like to listen. And don’t forget that you can catch The Megyn Kelly Show live on SiriusXM’s Triumph (channel 111) weekdays from 12pm to 2pm ET.