Gavin Newsom Responds to Fox News Accusing Him of Trying to ‘Chill Free Speech’ With Lawsuit

California Governor Gavin Newsom (D) joined progressive podcast host Brian Tyler Cohen on Friday to discuss his defamation lawsuit against Fox News.

Newsom filed the suit against Fox earlier in the day, seeking $787 million in damages (the same amount Fox paid Dominion Voting Systems) and a formal retraction and an on-air apology from prime time host Jesse Watters over suggesting that Newsom lied about a recent phone call with President Donald Trump.

Tyler Cohen read Newsom Fox’s response to the lawsuit, “I’m gonna put Fox News’ statement up on the screen. They wrote, ‘Governor 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.’”

He then asked, “Can I have your reaction to their statement?”

“Well, it’s almost verbatim what they said in the Dominion case. Seven hundred eighty-seven million reasons they fell short. They knew they had lied in that original statement against Dominion,” Newsom shot back.

Fox’s statements on the suit have made clear they believe Newsom’s suit is a PR move, an accusation they never leveled at Dominion.

“They’re lying in this case. I mean, look at the chyron you just put up, it says, ‘Gavin Lied About Call [With] Trump.’ Period. Full Stop. I mean, I don’t know what more smoking gun you need,” Newsom continued, adding:

And so look, this organization, it needs to be held to account. I think what’s so frustrating, I think for all of us is they learned no lessons from that defamation case as it relates to Dominion. Nothing, they continue the practices that led to that record-breaking settlement.

That’s why this needed to be filed and that’s why we felt compelled to make this case and to assert ourselves. Look, if they want to apologize, they can apologize, and if they want to hide behind these lies, they’ll pay a price.

Newsom’s suit against Fox is rooted in a Tuesday, June 10th, statement from Trump, in which the president appeared to mistake when he and Newsom spoke ahead of Trump federalizing the California National Guard and deploying troops to LA.

Trump was asked on the 10th, “When is the last time you spoke with Governor Newsom?” The president replied, “A day ago. Called him up to tell him, got to do a better job, he’s doing a bad job. Causing a lot of death and potential death.” A clip of the exchange was shared on X, and Newsom replied to it, writing, “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.”

Trump then offered a call log to Fox News anchor John Roberts, who showed it on-air. “So here is the evidence, and here is the call log that the president sent me from his phone. This was June the 7th,” Roberts said, adding, “Now, granted, this was on Saturday.” Newsom had publicly spoken about his call on Saturday with Trump, and appeared to only suggest “there was no call” on Monday – although some took it to mean Newsom was saying there was no call at all. Hence, Watters’s chyron saying Newsom lied, and now Newsom suing Fox for defamation.

Trump has long sued his opponents and is currently threatening to sue both the New York Times and CNN for their reporting on a leaked Pentagon document related to the U.S. strikes on Iran. Trump is also suing CBS News over their interview with Vice President Kamala Harris.

Watch the clip above.