Katie Porter grew to become a nationwide determine amongst Democrats for her sharp questioning of Trump administration figures, often holding a whiteboard, in House Oversight Committee hearings. The confrontations she sparked usually went viral when she posted them online.
That made her latest demand that a native CBS reporter have a “pleasant, positive conversation” along with her – and her risk to chop off their interview – all of the more noteworthy.
Porter, now running for governor of California, is drawing blowback after threatening to stroll out of an interview with CBS News Sacramento. A portion of the interview was posted on-line and broadly shared, at the same time as Porter’s marketing campaign famous she in the end spoke to the reporter for one other 20 minutes.
“What do you say to the 40% of California voters who you’ll need in order to win, who voted for Trump?” reporter Julie Watts begins within the clip. (President Donald Trump received 38% of the vote in California final yr.)
“How would I need them in order to win?” Porter shot again, emphasizing her give attention to the state’s Democratic voter base. “I feel like this is being unnecessarily argumentative. What is your question?”
Watts pressed on. “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.”
Porter then lower in, “OK, so, I don’t want to keep doing this. I’m going to call it, thank you.”
Watts continued to argue that Porter’s rivals had answered related questions, however Porter responded, “I don’t care,” saying that she had “never had to do this before” in chopping off the interview.
“I want to have a pleasant, positive conversation, in which you ask me about every issue on this list. And if every question, you’re going to make up a follow-up question, then we’re never going to get there,” Porter mentioned, referencing coverage debates she needed to debate.
The second drew nationwide consideration to a still-developing race to interchange Gov. Gavin Newsom, a contest former Vice President Kamala Harris considered but ultimately decided not to join.
Porter is a former congresswoman who ran unsuccessfully for US Senate in 2024. She is a former legislation professor and protege of Sen. Elizabeth Warren.
Former Biden administration Health and Human Services Director Xavier Becerra, considered one of Porter’s prime rivals within the gubernatorial race, responded to clips of the interview picked up by social media, writing, “I’m not interested in excluding any vote. Every Californian deserves affordable health care, safe streets, a roof over their head and a living wage.”
And former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa additionally weighed in, writing that “We need a leader who will solve hard problems and answer simple questions.”
Liberal commentator Mehdi Hasan on X called it a “car crash interview,” whereas Republican strategist Matt Whitlock wrote, “This Katie Porter crashout is INCREDIBLE.”
California, the biggest state within the nation, is additionally among the many most Democratic. No Republican has received it on the presidential degree since Ronald Reagan in 1988, and within the 2024 marketing campaign, Kamala Harris received her dwelling state by more than 30 factors.
However, California’s distinct “top two” major system – by which the primary and second place candidates in a major advance to the final election, no matter celebration – implies that two Democrats may face off on the ultimate poll, incentivizing appeals to independents and Republicans.
Porter, Becerra and Villaraigosa rank as essentially the most outstanding declared Democratic candidates, however US Sen. Alex Padilla and billionaire businessman Rick Caruso loom as potential entrants.
Conservative commentator and strategist Steve Hilton, in the meantime, leads amongst GOP candidates, drawing a significant share of the vote in public polls. That raises the prospect of a splintered Democratic subject opening a path to the final election poll for the Republican within the deep-blue state.