WATCH: Jesse Watters Segment at the Heart of Gavin Newsom’s $787 Million Defamation Suit
California Governor Gavin Newsom (D) is suing Fox News for $787 million over a Jesse Watters segment that he claims defamed him by deceptively painting him as a liar.
According to Newsom, Watters defamed him by accusing him of lying about a phone call with President Donald Trump amid ICE protests in Los Angeles. Newsom lashed out at the president for deploying National Guard troops to the city to handle the protests.
“If Fox News wants to lie to the American people on Donald Trump’s behalf, it should face consequences — just like it did in the Dominion case,” Newsom said in a statement. “I believe the American people should be able to trust the information they receive from a major news outlet.”
The “Dominion case” refers to a $787.5 million settlement Fox made with Dominion in a defamation suit based around conspiracy theories about the 2020 presidential election being rigged.
At the heart of Newsom’s lawsuit is the timing of his call with Trump. According to the governor, he spoke with the president on June 6 — which would have been June 7 on the East Coast — but on June 10, Trump told reporters he spoke to Newsom “a day ago,” telling the governor to do a better job handling the protests.
Newsom spoke about his call with the president in an MSNBC interview on June 8. After Trump claimed on June 10 that they spoke the day prior, Newsom took to social media to correct the president.
“There was no call. Not even a voicemail. Americans should be alarmed that a President deploying Marines onto our streets doesn’t even know who he’s talking to,” he wrote.
Watters accused the governor of lying while he was reporting on the back and forth. Watters referred to a call log showing a 16 minute call between Trump and Newsom to accuse Newsom of lying, but the governor’s lawsuit boils down to exactly when that call took place. The graphic next to Watters on Fox during the segment showed that June 7 was the date of a call between the governor and the president.
“Why would Newsom lie and claim Trump never called him? Why would he do that?” the Fox News host said as a chyron declared that Newsom “lied” about a phone call with Trump.
Fox News called Newsom’s lawsuit “frivolous” in a statement.
“Gov. Newsom’s transparent publicity stunt is frivolous and designed to chill free speech critical of him. We will defend this case vigorously and look forward to it being dismissed,” a spokesperson for the network said.
Watch above via Fox News.
