Jesse Watters Combatively Apologizes to Gavin Newsom Over Lying Suit: ‘I’m Sorry’

Fox News host Jesse Watters combatively apologized that his show “made a mistake” in its reporting on a phone call between California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) and President Donald Trump, the focus of the governor’s $787 million defamation lawsuit against the network.

Newsom, who filed the suit on June 27, alleges that Watters willfully distorted the timeline to make it appear he had green-lit Trump’s military deployment to Los Angeles amid immigration riots in the city.

During Watters’ June 11 Primetime segment, he claimed Newsom lied about a phone call with Trump regarding the June 10 deployment of Marines. Trump had told reporters he had called Newsom “a day ago,” implying a June 9 conversation.

Newsom, who had already publicly acknowledged a call with Trump in the early hours of June 7, responded on X: “There was no call. Not even a voicemail” and referring specifically to Trump’s recent claim.

Watters then aired an edited clip of Trump’s Oval Office remarks, omitting the crucial “a day ago” line. He also showed a screenshot of Trump’s call log, which recorded two calls to Newsom on June 7 — one missed, one lasting 16 minutes — using it to accuse the governor of lying about the call altogether. In doing so, Watters ignored the actual dispute over timing and reframed it as a flat denial, despite the call log corroborating Newsom’s version of events. A chyron on the show read bluntly: “Gavin lied about Trump’s call.”

After launching the lawsuit, Newsom offered to retract it if Watters apologized on air and on Thursday, Watters apologized – albeit coupled with a long-winded semi-defense of his approach, complete with signature sarcasm, that insisted Newsom’s wording was “confusing and unclear,” however admittedly not dishonest.

On Thursday. Watters said Fox offered the governor a spot on the show to “talk it out man to man” but Newsom declined. The host continued:

We thought the dispute was about whether there had been a call at all, not when. We thought that the governor was clear when he said, without qualification, that there was no call. Now Newsom’s telling us what was in his head when he wrote the tweet. He didn’t deceive anybody on purpose, so I’m sorry. He wasn’t lying. He was just confusing and unclear. Next time, Governor, why don’t you just say what you mean?

Watch above via Fox News.