Newly-released footage of California gubernatorial candidate Katie Porter threatening to walk out of a CBS News interview has gone viral in which the Democrat is seen growing flustered by a question and almost tearing her mic off.
The interview with journalist Julie Watts of CBS News California Investigates, which was conducted last month, hit a snag when the reporter asked the former representative about her prospects of winning over Republicans in the state as she seeks to succeed the term-limited Gavin Newsom.
“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 Porter.
“How would I need them in order to win, ma’am?” Porter responded, seemingly unhappy with the question but chuckling for the camera, before going on to express certainty that she could pick up the remaining 60 percent of non-Trump votes.
“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,” Porter said, referring to her time representing “purple” Orange County.
“But you just said you don’t need those Trump voters,” Watts countered, causing the ex-congresswoman to throw up her hands and say the interview was becoming “unnecessarily argumentative.”
When the reporter insisted she had put the same question to all of Porter’s rivals in the race without issue, the latter responded: “I don’t want to keep doing this, I’m going to call it. Thank you.” She then reached for the mic pinned to her lapel and attempted to remove it.
Watts asked if she was serious about terminating the interview, and Porter complained that she was being hit with “seven follow-ups to every single question you ask,” commenting that she had never had to “end an interview” before.
When the reporter stood firm and insisted it was her job to ask challenging questions, Porter said: “I don’t want to have an unhappy experience with you and I don’t want this all on camera.”
Responding to the clip being circulated online on Tuesday evening, Watts said on X: “So… looks like 3min of this 30 min segment has gone viral. I hope you’ll want the full segment.”
Media pundit Mehdi Hasan reacted by expressing dismay that a politician should expect “pleasant positive conversations” rather than substantive questioning by journalists. At the same time, Megyn Kelly gloated: “Are there other terrible interviews with Katie Porter? This is the most entertaining, unifying thing since Tiger King!”
Porter, who lost her bid for the Senate to Adam Schiff last year, is bidding to become California’s first-ever female governor and has attracted the support of the influential grassroots campaign group EMILYs List, which backs female candidates who support abortion rights.
The progressive, a well-known face nationally from her time in Washington, currently holds a slight lead in the polls ahead of next June’s primary, having benefited from former vice president Kamala Harris’s announcement in August that she would not run.
Thirty percent of registered voters who said they would have voted for Harris now plan to support Porter, according to a recent Politico survey.
Sixteen percent of that group said they would transfer their support to former Los Angeles mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, and 11 percent said their next choice was the state’s former health and human services secretary Xavier Becerra.
However, Porter could face stiffer competition if California Sen. Alex Padilla ultimately decides to enter the race to replace Newsom, who is widely expected to run for president in 2028.
On the Republican side, her challengers include Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco and former Fox News host Steve Hilton.
