Seven California gubernatorial hopefuls were on stage last night for a debate moderated by CNN, and it was filled with wild moments – most of which featured Megyn’s favorite candidate (for the sake of the endless content she provides), former U.S. Congresswoman Katie Porter.
From blurting out “Donald Trump sucks” to definitively saying she supports taxpayer-funded healthcare for illegals to sounding as if she was going to cry, Porter definitely made the debate a night to remember.
The Polls
According to the RealClearPolitics average of polls, Republican Steve Hilton remains in first place in the race, followed by Democrat billionaire Tom Steyer. Another Republican, Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco is just behind in third.
Rounding out the top five are former California state Attorney General Xavier Becerra and Porter. San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan and former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa also made the debate stage Tuesday night.
The top two vote-getters, regardless of party affiliation, will advance to the general election. The primary is set for June 2 and early voting is already underway.
Porter’s Ad
Before the debate even began, Porter was making headlines for releasing a new ad that attempts to poke fun at her viral moment berating a staff member. Back in October, after the former congresswoman threatened to end an interview because she didn’t like the questions, a video resurfaced from July 2021 showing Porter snapping, “get out of my fucking shot” at a staffer during a virtual interview.
Megyn has been saying all along that Porter should have diffused the controversy by making fun of herself. Unfortunately, she believes she missed the window to do so authentically. “I regret to inform you, sister Katie, it’s too late now,” Megyn said on Wednesday’s show. “It just looks nakedly political because you put it in an ad, too, whereas you should have done it in the moment when the controversy was happening. You should have gone on SNL, this show, anywhere, and mocked yourself.”
While some might argue the move from Porter is better late than never, Megyn said ‘never’ may have been preferable given the execution of the ad. Watch:
Megyn said it is “amazing” that Porter seems to want props for “being a normal person” who is raising kids, going grocery shopping, and driving a practical car. But even if Porter was trying to draw a distinction between herself and Dem-leader Steyer, who, Megyn acknowledged, “probably doesn’t go to the grocery store… or have that great a figure on how much things cost,” there is yet another uncomfortable reality about her background.
“One of the reasons she is a single mom with three kids is because, according to her ex-husband, she once threw scalding hot potatoes at him,” Megyn noted.
In court documents, Porter’s ex alleged that, on one occasion, she went berserk over the way he was preparing mashed potatoes and she snapped, “Can’t you read the fucking instructions!” He then claimed Porter raised “a ceramic bowl of steaming hot potatoes and dumped it on my head, burning my scalp.”
Still Struggling
When Porter was asked by moderator Kaitlan Collins about the ad during Tuesday’s debate, she went in a different direction, this time seeming to be overcome with emotional about it.
“Californians can decide for themselves about my temperament based on what they’ve seen here tonight. And if these bullies, these boys bullying and bickering hasn’t been enough to raise questions about their temperament, I would really challenge that,” Porter said as her voice began to quiver. “I have taken responsibility at this point hundreds of times and that’s appropriate because I made a bad decision and I treated someone badly. I apologized five years ago for it, and we worked together for four more years.”
“What I haven’t heard is the people on this stage who have made other bad decisions and other mistakes and other failures of leadership. Not one of them, not one of these men, have said, in this entire campaign, ‘I’ve made a mistake,'” she added, voice still shaking. “And what that ad is about, Kaitlan, it’s about showing that I can laugh at myself, I can hold myself to account, and I have the fitness, the temperament, and the best ideas to be governor.”
Megyn joked that Porter went “from mocking it to nearly crying about it to also claiming sexism in a matter of hours,” but what stood out to her was how poorly prepared Porter continues to be to deal with this controversy.
“It doesn’t work when you’re explicitly telling us what the marketing managers wanted to convey. ‘What that shows you is that I can laugh at myself.’ ‘It shows my sense of humor.’ No, no, no,” Megyn said. “You have to go with what the message overall was supposed to be. Like, ‘it shows that I understand what real Californians are going through, in a way the billionaire class up here does not.’ That would have been your answer, sister, but you can’t do it because you are so wrapped up in your own head.”
Return to Form?
In what was perhaps a failed effort to appear as though she has changed her ways, Porter had the audacity to lecture her fellow hopefuls about decorum. “I can’t believe that on a stage with 30 minutes of interrupting and bickering and name calling and shouting and disrespect for everyone up here who’s stepping into public service that anyone wants to talk about my temperament,” she scolded.
But GOP challenger Chad Bianco wasn’t having it. “You were actually interrupting them, too,” he responded. “I don’t know why you want to act like you weren’t.”
That was when Porter returned to her vintage form. “Oh, cowboy up, cupcake,” she clapped back.
Candid Katie
The most headline-making moment of the debate, however, came when Porter gave a remarkably direct answer to moderator Elex Michaelson’s question about healthcare for illegal immigrants in the Golden State.
MICHAELSON: Congresswoman Porter, your thoughts on the idea of funding healthcare for undocumented immigrants statewide.
PORTER: Yes.
MICHAELSON: Yes. And, and–
PORTER: And that’s, by the way, what I think Californians deserve as answers to these questions, Elex. Yes.
MICHAELSON: And for critics who say that we can’t afford it, what do you say to that?
PORTER: We can’t afford to have people who are sick, who are making the rest of us sick.
Megyn admitted Porter deserved some credit for owning her stance. “I do appreciate… [that] she says it explicitly,” she noted. “I do have more respect for that than the pussyfooted like, ‘What I think is’ and then a long, meandering, non-answer by somebody who also feels ‘yes.'”
Signs of Sanity
As Porter signed onto taxpayer-funded healthcare for illegals and Steyer doubled down on his radical plan to abolish Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in California, there was some much-needed sanity on the debate stage courtesy of the Republican candidates.
In addition to Bianco mixing it up with Porter a few times throughout the night, frontrunner Hilton presented a very different take on immigration when asked about “mass deportations”:
COLLINS: Mr. Hilton, right now, President Trump is enacting a policy of mass deportation. As you know, roughly half of California farm workers, which are an essential part of this state’s economy, are undocumented. As governor, would you push to deport them?
HILTON: So, I’m the only immigrant on stage. I’m a legal immigrant. And Americans support immigration when it is properly controlled. And what we saw under the Biden administration – open borders – undermined everybody’s support for immigration. And as governor, I’ve made it very clear, although it is the federal government’s responsibility to determine and implement immigration policy, I think it’s important that all the laws are peacefully enforced. And as governor, I would make sure that we work with the federal government to enforce our law.
Californians have not elected a Republican governor in two decades, but there are promising signs. President Donald Trump got 1.6 million more votes in the Golden State in 2024 than he did in 2016, and Hilton continues to lead the crowded pack.
Megyn’s reaction: “Go, Steve. Go!”
You can check out Megyn’s full analysis by tuning in to episode 1,311 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 The Megyn Kelly Channel (channel 111) weekdays from 12pm to 2pm ET.