Katie Porter’s Bombshell Meltdown Over Trump Voters Hides Dirty Media Secret — She Wasn’t Wrong
Former Congresswoman and current candidate for governor Katie Porter’s (D-CA) viral meltdown over a question about people who voted for President Donald Trump illustrates a dirty media secret that’s getting lost in the outrage over Porter’s behavior — she wasn’t wrong to lash out.
Investigative journalist and California Capitol Accountability Correspondent Julie Watts of CBS News Sacramento interviewed Porter and 10 other California gubernatorial candidates last month about term-limited Governor Gavin Newsom’s (D-CA) redistricting plan.
When the full program dropped this week, one question completely derailed the interview and turned Porter into a social media punchline.
Watts asked, “What do you say to the 40% of California voters, who you’ll need in order to win, who voted for Trump?”
Porter responded with a quip that led to the three cringeworthiest minutes you’ll see until the next Trump event:
JULIE WATTS: What do you say to the 40% of California voters, who you’ll need in order to win, who voted for Trump?
FMR. REP. KATIE PORTER (D-CA): How would I need them in order to win, ma’am?
JULIE WATTS: Well, unless you think you’re going to get —
FMR. REP. KATIE PORTER (D-CA): (MUGS TO CAMERA).
JULIE WATTS: — 60% of the vote. You think you’ll get 60%. Everybody who did not vote for Trump will vote for you. That’s what you’re saying.
FMR. REP. KATIE PORTER (D-CA): In a general election? Yes. If it is me versus a Republican, I think that I will win the people who did not vote for Trump.
JULIE WATTS: What if it’s you versus another Democrat?
FMR. REP. KATIE PORTER (D-CA): I don’t intend that to be the case.
JULIE WATTS: So how do you not intend that to be a case? Do you? Are you going to ask them not to run?
FMR. REP. KATIE PORTER (D-CA): No, no, I’m saying I’m going to build the support. I have the support already in terms of name recognition, and so I’m gonna do the very best I can to make sure that we get through this primary in a really strong position.
But let me be clear with you. I represented Orange County. I represented a purple area. I have stood on my own two feet and won Republican votes before.
That’s not something every candidate in this race can say. If you’re from a deep blue area, if you’re from LA or you’re from Oakland, you don’t have an experience —
JULIE WATTS: But you just said you don’t t need those Trump voters.
FMR. REP. KATIE PORTER (D-CA): But you asked me if I needed them to win.
JULIE WATTS: So you don’t think you need them to win —
FMR. REP. KATIE PORTER (D-CA): I feel like this is unnecessarily argumentative. What is your question?
JULIE WATTS: The question is, the same thing I asked everybody, that this is being called the Empowering Voters to Stop Trump’s Power Grab. Every other candidate has answered this question. This is not argumentative.
FMR. REP. KATIE PORTER (D-CA): Correct, and I said, I support it.
JULIE WATTS: So, and the question is what do you say to the 40 percent of voters who voted for Trump?
FMR. REP. KATIE PORTER (D-CA): Oh, I’m happy to say that. It’s the do-you-need-them-to-win part that I don’t understand. I’m to answer– ask the question as you have it written, and I’ll answer it.
JULIE WATTS: And we’ve also asked the other candidates, do you think you need any of those 40% of California voters to win? And you’re saying, no, you don’t.
FMR. REP. KATIE PORTER (D-CA): No, I’m saying I’m going to try to win every vote I can. And what I’m saying to you is that…
JULIE WATTS: Well, to those voters, OK, so you —
FMR. REP. KATIE PORTER (D-CA): I don’t want to keep doing this. (CLAPS) I’m gonna call it. Thank you.
JULIE WATTS: You’re not going to do the interview with us.
FMR. REP. KATIE PORTER (D-CA): Nope, not like this. I’m not. Not with seven follow-ups to every single question you ask.
JULIE WATTS: Every other candidate has answered our follow-ups.
FMR. REP. KATIE PORTER (D-CA): I don’t care. I wanna have a pleasant, positive conversation in which you asked me about every issue on this list.
And if every question, you’re gonna make up a follow-up question, then we’re never gonna get there.
JULIE WATTS: Miss Porter —
FMR. REP. KATIE PORTER (D-CA): And we’re just gonna circle around.
JULIE WATTS: I am an investigative reporter.
FMR. REP. KATIE PORTER (D-CA): I have never had to do this before, ever.
JULIE WATTS: You’ve never had to have —
FMR. REP. KATIE PORTER (D-CA): To end an interview. To end an interview.
JULIE WATTS: — a conversation with a reporter? Okay. But every other candidate has done this
FMR. REP. KATIE PORTER (D-CA): What part of I’m me –? I’m running for governor because I’m a leader so I am going to make —
JULIE WATTS: So you’re not going to answer questions from reporters?
Okay, why don’t we go through, I will continue to ask follow-up questions because that’s my job as a journalist, but I will go through and ask these and if you don’t wanna answer, you don’t wanna answer. So, nearly every legislative —
FMR. REP. KATIE PORTER (D-CA): I don’t want to have an unhappy experience with you, and I don’t want this all on camera.
JULIE WATTS: I don’t want to have an unhappy experience with you either.
I would love to continue to ask these questions so that we can show our viewers what every candidate feels about every one of these issues that they care about.
And redistricting is a massive issue. We’re going to do an entire story just on the responses to that question. And I’ve asked everybody the same follow-up.
The exchange was definitely a bad look for Porter, with an uncomfortable behind-the-curtain vibe that seemed to confirm a lot of traits that her established critics like to push about her.
Some have taken liberties with what was said and accused her of swearing off “questions from reporters” or of saying she’d never been asked follow-up questions before. These are distortions — Porter explained that she had never had “to end an interview” before, and her complaint was with what she felt were needlessly aggressive and numerous follow-ups.
But instead of arguing the substance of Watt’s questioning, Porter resorted to an embarrassing attempt at bullying the reporter that she knew enough to try, in vain, to keep off-camera.
Poor execution notwithstanding, Katie Porter wasn’t wrong to be set off by that question. First of all, she wasn’t wrong when she quipped, “How would I need them in order to win, ma’am?”
Porter is (or was) leading polls in California by a lot, with Republican candidates in second and no other Democrat getting even half the support she has. Before this interview, there wasn’t much incentive for her to reach out to Trump voters — certainly not at the expense of her base.
And while the former congresswoman was tripped up by what she realized were horrible optics, her ire exposes a legitimate gripe with the media.
Watt claimed that “every other candidate has answered this question,” but that’s not strictly true. She asked all of the Democrats for their message to Trump voters, but she didn’t ask Republicans for their message to Trump voters or Harris voters or anything of the sort. The Republicans were asked a policy-focused question about their message to “Prop 50 Supporters.”
This is a pattern the media has repeated over and over again, ever since Hillary Clinton accurately described some Trump fans as “deplorables” — “racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic, Islamaphobic — you name it.”
According to polls and studies at the time, Hillary pretty much nailed the proportion she said “half” of Trump supporters. The ratio has probably shifted since then, given the much more overt appeals to those traits this time around.
Since then, any time anyone anywhere says something negative about Trump voters, Democrats are asked about it with the fervor of Geraldo Rivera greeting an empty vault — but with more sledgehammer.
And even without a precipitating event, Democrats are constantly asked how they will reach out to Trump or to Trump voters.
But nobody ever asks Trump or the Republicans what they’ll do to reach out to people who voted for former Vice President Kamala Harris or former President Joe Biden. There are millions more of them than there are of people who voted for Trump.
And the “Deplorables” effect that’s playing out right now for Porter is even more infuriating when you measure it against the zero outrage generated when Trump slanders the 81 million people who voted against him on the reg, including with familiar-sounding epithets like “vermin.”
When you think about it, anyone who “needs” someone who thinks you’re an “evil” minion of “Satan” to win has much bigger problems than an “unhappy experience” with a reporter.
Watch above via Julie Watts Investigates.
This is an opinion piece. The views expressed in this article are those of just the author.
