Oh my gosh, guys! Did you hear about that? golf club Katie Porter? I swear to God on a pile of holy Bibles, she's such a bad girl! She can never be governor of California! And she won't make the search happen either!
Alright, can we please grow up here for a minute?
Like many ambitious politicians, Katie Porter, a former Democratic congresswoman and UC Irvine law professor now running to succeed California Gov. Gavin Newsom in 2026, has a bad temper.
Porter, a protégé of Massachusetts Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren, the tireless consumer advocate, rose to prominence during her three terms in Congress. She was nicknamed the “whiteboard warrior” for using the common classroom tool to simplify complex financial issues during hearings. She criticized corporate titans like Jamie Dimon like a boss. Porter's star was briefly overshadowed by a loss to Adam Schiff in the U.S. Senate race last year, but when she announced her candidacy for governor, she instantly became the favorite in a crowded Democratic field. .
Porter's rivals have understandably been waiting for the opportunity to take her down. Recently, she gave them that opportunity. In a television interview with Julia Watts, a CBS News correspondent in Sacramento, Porter appeared testy. He decided, for some reason, that he didn't want to continue answering questions about how he would appeal to the 40% of California voters who supported President Trump.
“How would I need them to win, ma'am?” Porter asked.
“Unless you think you're going to get 60% of the vote,” Watts pressed, “will everyone who didn't vote for Trump vote for you?”
“In a general election?” Porter asked. “Yeah.”
“We've also asked the other candidates if they think they need that 40% of California voters to win,” Watts said, “and you say no, you don't.”
“I'm saying I'm going to try to win as many votes as I can,” Porter responded. “And what I'm telling you is…” At that moment, he raised his hands.
“I don't want to do this anymore. I'll call him, thank you,” said Porter, who took off his microphone and told Watts he didn't want to answer “seven follow-ups to every question you ask.”
Porter did not yell or throw a punch.
She just seemed fed up. Running for office can be a difficult task, and sometimes you just don't feel like answering the same question over and over again. It's not that Watts was out of place. She absolutely wasn't. However, and this is not a minor detail, despite what some media outlets such as the Daily Beast reported, Porter did not “come out furious” from the interview. Both CBS and his campaign said he spent another 20 minutes speaking with Watts.
But the viral die was cast.
Shortly afterward, Politico obtained a 2021 clip of Porter berating an employee while then-Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm interviewed her via Zoom. The employee interrupted to correct something Porter said about electric vehicles.
“Get out of me [effing] Shot!” Porter asked. Petty and shameful, no doubt.
And lest the fight end there, the New York Post also reminded us that years ago, Porter's ex-husband accused her of verbal and physical abuse, alleging that she threw hot mashed potatoes on his head during a fight. This is ridiculous.
As Porter recounts in her 2023 memoir, “I Swear: Politics is Messier Than My Minivan,” in divorce papers and in a lengthy 2018 interview with the Huffington Post at the dawn of her political career, Porter was abused by her ex-husband, who in turn accused her of abuse just before the hearing on her restraining order request.
As recounted in the HuffPo story, one night while she was flossing her teeth, her husband burst into the bathroom, ripped out the floss, and “then hit the wall with such force that he broke the faceplate of the light switch and turned off the lights. He would later tell a judge that he was angry because his wife had been brushing her teeth too slowly.” There were 911 calls and, at one point, Porter hid his three young children.
She only went public with her humiliating divorce story because someone who supported one of her 2018 Democratic rivals called her “Katie 'Restraining Order' Porter” on Twitter. Following the advice of his political advisor Ace Smith, he released his divorce records to quell any rumors.
It's fair to say that Porter's personal life has been complicated. Last year, she sought and received a restraining order against an ex-boyfriend for sending her hundreds of “threatening and harassing” messages.
Still, his unfortunate outburst with the CBS reporter gave his competitors a long-sought opportunity.
“Katie Porter is a weak, self-destructive candidate who is unfit to lead California,” former state Controller Betty Yee wrote in X. “There is too much at stake for her to remain in this race.”
Pundits and talk show panelists talked about how the uproar would affect his campaign. Most seem to agree that this was bad news for Porter and also that it has cemented her reputation as a bad boss.
Porter apologized and promised to do better, although she dodged questions about whether there would be more videos of her behaving badly.
Frankly, I'm not so sure this is a fatal blow to his campaign.
It's true that female candidates are held to a higher standard of behavior than male candidates: Kamala Harris laughed too much! Hillary Clinton was too programmed! Elizabeth Warren was too strident! Women are not allowed to be overly emotional or, God forbid, get angry.
But times have shown that voters can forgive a candidate's bad behavior if they like what he represents and believe he has their best interests at heart.
Especially now, Democrats want fighters like Newsom and Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker, who have become national stars for leading the resistance against Trump and his autocratic overreach.
It's also fair to say that in a hitherto dormant gubernatorial race, California voters have suddenly come alive.
If you didn't know Katie Porter's name before, you sure do now.
Blue sky: @rabcarian
Rags: @rabcarian
