Katie Porter's no good, very bad week (10-09-2025--Hour2)

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Trying to trying not to be mean, but she's kind of this gross congresswoman from uh California, and uh she has had any number of pr problems, let's say, over her career, but I think she has torched her attempted run now for governor, Okay of California because Gavin Newsom, you know, running for president obviously, So he's been m i a for a while when he's not standing in front of me a burning home, blaming climate change for the Palisades fire, which, by the way, turned out not to be climate change. I'm as shocked as you are. That wasn't climate change that burned down the Palisades. No, No, it was an arsonist. Yeah, some whack job looks like a firebug. That's you know, I know it's kind of antiquated now to think in those terms, but there are people who are pyromaniacs and they like to light fires, and they like to see stuff burn, and that like when I was growing up, that was really like if anything caught fire, these wildfires, if it wasn't like a lightning strike or something, it was a pyro you know. And that's what it seems like this guy was. That they just arrested, I think, but yesterday or day before federally charged him. So not climate change anyway. So she's running for governor. There are a bunch of people running for governor of California. It's a very big state. It's like basically the whole Left coast, which is to me ridiculous. You need to break that state up into multiple states because you can't even travel to your state capital in like less than half a day or something from some parts of the state. It's just ridiculous. So anyway, that's a side side story. Katie Porter, she sat for an interview with a local CBS affiliate news reporter. I believe her name is Julie Watts Uh. It's in here somebody, Yeah, Julie watts Uh, CBS News California based correspondent, and Julie Watts was doing a series of interviews with all of the candidates, asking them basically the same questions, and then she was going to put it all together into you know, longer form stories on the candidates and their positions on the various issues. So she sits for this interview. I'm gonna play for you the audio of this interview. It doesn't run very long, Okay, it's like three minutes. It doesn't it. It does not go well. And when I say that, I mean like it goes as bad as the late Kay Hagan's re election announcement in North Carolina for the US Senate when she was facing all of these questions about why she wasn't attending the Armed Services Committee meetings where they heard about the rise of ISIS in Iraq, and she was, you know, blowing off all these committee meetings and going to fundraise and such, and so she was at the center of this swirl and she decides to go to the Board of Elections and announce her reelection intent and thinks that she can just make the announcement and then walk out the back door without taking any questions. And yeah, no, it did not go well because the reporters that were there that were wanting to get answers to the questions about why she didn't attend all of these committee meetings about the rise of ISIS, which, if you recall at the time, this was when ISIS was was surging and they were murdering people all over the place with these you know, live streamed beheadings and such. They were taking over large pieces of Iraq, and on the Armed Services Committee they were getting briefs and she wasn't participating until people wanted to know, why weren't you there, And so she goes to make her announcement, I'm running again for reelection, yeay me, And then she tries to duck out the back well. The reporters then follow her out and they basically chase her through the parking lot where she's like walking away from them, not wanting to answer these questions. And I said at the time, like, I don't know if that could go any worse unless she like took a baby bunny rabbit and like lit it on fire for the cameras, you know, don't I don't know how that goes any any worse. You look like you're doing a purp walk, like you've been arrested, like this guy, Cecil Brockman was right. Anyway, Katie Porter's performance in this interview this is as bad of a performance as Kay Haagen's. I think it's actually worse when you actually see the video. And I know this is radio so you can't see it, but you're gonna hear it. And just the contempt that she displays for what for being asked a question? For being asked a follow up question? What have I been saying? Democrats, because of the kid glove treatment that they receive from the media on the regular they are not prepared to answer questions on the rare occasion when they are confronted by an actual journalist that asks them actual questions that might be a little difficult for them to answer, particularly a journalist who asks follow up questions. Right. It's one thing to go in there and ask them a question and the politician then tapped answers away from the answer, doesn't address the question, and then the journalist just moves on. But when you keep trying to drag that politician back to answer your question, right, they eventually have to answer it if you, as the reporter, keep dragging them back, and that's on you as the reporter. And look, I've done it. Sometimes it gets a little uncomfortable because you know they don't want to answer the question, and then they get frustrated, and then you risk burning a bridge and all of this. So this reporter sits down for this interview, and the first sign that something is amiss to me, this is just me, is that somehow, some reason, I don't know who, decided they were going to do this interview in master control. Now master control at all TV stations, right, Master control is this dark room. It's got a bunch of tables all looking like sort of like the mission control at NASA. You know, you're all looking up at the wall, and they're all these TV monitors on the wall and stuff from all these different you know, live feeds coming in and such, and so it's a very dark room. And so they they sit there and then they do this interview with the two seats facing each other. So you get it's these are so the camera angle is a profile of both of them. And let me just say it this way. Katie Porter in profile not her most flattering angle. Okay, it's not a flattering angle for her. And I've seen people say that this is indicative that her staff hates her. And by the way, that would actually track because up in Washington, d C. There is this sort of the worst bosses kind of list that is known among the people on Capitol Hill, and she's on that list. She's an awful person to work for. Stories abound, okay, and I actually have another clip that I will play you to prove that point. But this is indicative of like, her staff not liking her, and so they put her in the most unflattering profile situation and stuck her in master control with this terrible lighting rig setup. It just looked bad and then she opened her mouth. You know, stories are powerful. They help us make sense of things, to understand experiences. Stories connect us to the people of our past while transcending generations. They help us process the meaning of life and our stories are told through images and videos. Preserve your stories with Creative Video. Started in nineteen ninety seven and Mint Hill, North Carolina. 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Well, what do you say to the forty percent of California voters who you'll need in order to win, who voted for Trump? How would I need them in order to win? A man, Well, unless you think you're going to get sixty percent of the vote, you think you'll get all everybody who did not vote for Trump will vote for you. Okay, So hang on a second. So when she says that, why do I need the forty percent to win? Ma'am? She does this thing where she leans over and they're sitting very close together. She leans forward, says that to her, and then turns to the camera and starts mugging for the camera. Yuk, yuck, yuck ha ha, Like, oh, why do I need the forty percent? Uh ah? Check me out, singer. You know. So it's just kind of a weird start. Now I think that the question was It wasn't exactly, So let me just read. This is from Jeffrey Blair at National Review. He says the interview began with Watts asking porter about the recent move by Gavin Newsom and state Democrat lawmakers to redistrict Republican congressmen out of their seats in retaliation for the redrawing of other red state legislative maps. Right, So that's been the issue that's taking up a lot of the politic gal oxygen in this election. Is this independent redistricting Commission to be temporarily suspended so then they can jerrymander all of the Republicans out of their seats. Watts misspoke on her very first question, ensuring there would not be a second, because the question was what do you say to the forty percent of California voters who you'll need in order to win who voted for Trump? Jeffrey Blair says, that's tautologically false that you need the support of the losing parties voters to win. But candidates are not supposed to say things like, ha, we live in a one party state, so it doesn't matter what Trump voters think. You're not supposed to say that. Watts was actually attempting to pose a simple challenge to the would be governor, as she later made clear many times, what do you say to the forty percent of the Californians you're seeking to federally disenfranchise right of California voters are Republicans, and you guys want to jerrymander the maps. I want to suspend state law for your independent redistricting commission that you've had for like twenty years now. You want to get rid of that temporarily so you can disenfranchise all the Republican voters. Yet you want to be the governor of those forty percent? What do you say to them? That's the question, and you should have an answer for that. My goodness, it's like the top issue in this election cycle. Okay, and it gets worse. You're 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 Try what if it's you versus another Democrat? I don't intend that to be the case. So how do you not intend that to be the case? Do you? Are you going to ask them not to run? 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 going to 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 one 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, is that you don't need those Trump voters. So you asked me if I need them to win? So you don't think like this is unnecessarily argumentative. What is your question? The question is the same thing I asked everybody that this is being called. Okay, let me stop there for a moment. She says she doesn't intend it to be the case that she will have to run against the Democrat in the general election. I don't know how she thinks she gets to determine that because California has what they call a jungle primary. Jeffrey Blair described this well here it is the divide. So right now the divided primary field. Also because they have a primary, and then the top votainers, not vote getters, people votainers, they move on to the general. Okay, So the field right now has HHS Secretary Xavier Bessera, Lieutenant Governor Ellenie Cunilakis, former Los Angeles mayor, Tony Viagarosa and Fox News commentator Steve Hilton, a Republican, and then six other guys you've never heard of. Okay, So, California has used a jungle primary system since twenty twelve, meaning the top two votainers advanced to the November ballot regardless of party. Now, her lead right now is not commanding, and it's primarily due to name recognition as a former congresswoman from one of the LA suburbs, although now her name recognition is probably going to be a little bit greater. Yeah, So I don't know how she thinks that she's not going to face a Democrat in the election, because the jungle primary system allows for two Democrats to assent, right, So I don't understand her response there where like, oh, I don't intend that to be the case. And then she says I can pull votes from the Republicans. The empowering voters to stop Trump's power grab. Every other candidate has answered this, all. Right, this is the redistricting question to suspend the Independent Redistricting Commission and Jerrymander in order to disenfranchise all of the Republicans in California, or as many as you can in order to preserve the House of Representatives numbers for Democrats in Congress. Right, question, this is not I said, I support it. So and the question is what do you say to the forty percent of voters who voted for Trump? Oh, I'm happy to say that. It's the do you need them to win part that I don't understand. I'm happy to answer the question aswer the question as you haven't written and all answer. And we've also asked the other candidates do you think you need any of those forty percent of California voters to win? And you're saying no, you don't. No, I'm saying I'm gonna try to win every vote I can. And what I'm saying to you is that, well to those voters, Okay, so you I don't want to keep doing this. I'm gonna call it. Oh, thank you. About her answer there was perfectly fine. But this is this is just a tiny bit of pushback. That's what I said earlier. The kid glove treatment that the media gives Democrats has made them intellectually flabby. She can't even handle a couple of follow ups that aren't even hard. Here's a great idea, how about making an escape to a really special and secluded getaway in western North Carolina. Just a quick drive up the mountain and Cabins of Asheville is your connection. 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Call her text eight two eight three six seven seventy sixty eight, or check out all there is to offer at cabins Offashville dot com and make memories that'll last a lifetime. Katie Porter from California. If you didn't know of her before this week, you may have seen some of these clips circulating on the interweb, and the California voters, well, they're going to see a lot of these clips. This is a very bad week. Or actually it's just been like forty eight hours. It hasn't even been a week for Katie Porter. She sits for this interview with the local CBS correspondent who's doing a story with interviews with all of the candidates for governor, talking about the race, but also talking about the referendum where California voters are being asked to suspend their independent Redistricting Commission, which is in their constitution, which they put there by a referendum vote. They are being asked by Democrats to suspend it so Democrats can jerrymander and draw new districts, new congressional lines to remove all Republicans from any congressional seat in California. That's what they're doing okay, and so like the question is what do you tell these voters forty percent of the state voters or Republicans, What do you tell them that you're out here lobbying to disenfranchise them. You don't want them to have any congressional representation in Congress, but you want them to get your vote for governor. Like how are you making that message? Why would a Republican vote for you when you're actively telling people to disenfranchise them, Right, that's the question. That's what this reporter is focusing on. And Katie Porter is not happy. She says it, She'll tell you not happy. And then she says, I'm gonna call it, claps her hands together like I'm gonna call it, puts her palms, you know, towards the reporter like I'm done, and she starts to like fiddle with her microphone. But the reporter just presses on to her credit like this is a good move by her tactically, Like just keep pressing on to try to keep the subject seated in the chair and not abandon the interview. So this is what's trying to save the interview. You're not going to do the interview with them. Nope, not like this. I'm not not with seven follow ups to every single. Question you ask every other candidate has. I don't care. I don't care. I want to have a pleasant, positive conversation which you asked 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. But yeah, that's her job. You're sitting for an interview with a member of the media. And I mean, just think about the mindset of this woman, Katie Porter, this congress member. The idea that a reporter would ask her a series of follow ups to a question on the list. This is outrageous to her. I'm not going to sit for an interview where you get to ask me just anything right like by comparison, I will tell you when Congressman Tim Moore, former Speaker of the North Carolina House, happened to be in West Charlotte the other day. His people called us up and said, Hey, he's down on the street. Do you want him on the show? He'll drop in, And I said, sure, he dropped in. I'd done no prep for the interview, and I had. When he came, I said, he sat down I said, is there anything that you want to like hit on? Is there any topic or whatever that like you're in town for or whatever? And he says, no, just ask me anything. That is usually the case in my career. That is usually the case with every Republican member of Congress I have ever interviewed. If I call them and say, I want to ask you about this topic, because that's standard, you ask you tell the subject I want to interview you about, you know, this topic, so they have an idea when they go into the interview. They have an idea of what the topic is going to be. They don't know the questions. I have had people ask me, Hey, can you send among the questions for the congress member, And I say no, I will not send you questions. You don't get the questions ahead of time. This isn't an open book test, right, We're just gonna have a conversation and if I think up a question while we're chatting, I'm gonna ask it. So that's the deal, and they all take the deal. But for some reason, Katie Porter has made it to the wholes of Congress and has never had follow ups to questions. This is what I mean intellectually flabby. I'm not making any comments about her appearance that is not a reference to her appearance that I have been saying that phrase for a long time. And yes, I do recognize that she does have a bit of an eight head. It's like twice the size of a normal forehead. But I'm not focusing on her personal appearance. Okay, and we're just going to circle around. And I had to do this before ever You've never had had a conversation to Okay, but every other candidate has done this. What part of I'm me? I'm running for governor because I'm a leader, so I am going to make. 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 this, and if you don't want to answer, don't want to answer, so nearly every legislative. I don't want to have an unhappy experience with you, and I don't want this all on camera. I don't want to have an unhappy experience with you either. Oh my God. 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 redistrit taking. It's a massive issue. We're going to do an entire story just on the responses to that question and have asked everybody the same follow up questions. I don't want to have an unhappy experience with you, ma'am. You're running for governor. This is a journalist asking you questions. Think about the Democrat privilege here. That's what we're looking at. That's what you're hearing. Democrat privilege that you can have a career in politics and never face These aren't even tough questions. These are like, this is sort of the equivalent of why are you running? Like? Tell us your origin story? How awesome of a candidate are you? Like? These aren't difficult questions. But she thought she was just going to be able to say whatever she wanted to say and move on, because that's what Democrat privilege allows you when you are dealing with legacy media outlets. And for some reason, poor Katie Porter happened to cross paths with Julie Watts, who happens to be an actual reporter and asked follow up questions. It really is remarkable, but not as remarkable as what happened next. After this video came out, another video dropped. So when I was a kid, my grandpa died with Alzheimer's, and before he died, my mom and my dad took care of him as he got worse. Forty years ago, there were no treatments and not much support for caregivers and family. But things are different today because of the work of so many people, including the Alzheimer's Association of Western Carolina. It's a great organization with awsome some people with huge hearts. I've been a supporter for twenty five years. This cause means a lot to me. 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Jiji on the text line says she needs an emotional support puppy in a safe room, grow up and run a campaign, an actual campaign. John from New Jersey says Porter's total lack of self awareness is astounding. Seth says, could you imagine doing a job interview and telling the interview or after the first question that you're not answering any more questions because it's not leading to a happy place. Yeah, I've never I've never seen anything like this before from a candidate. Well, with the exception of Alvin Green who ran for US Senate in South Carolina, who literally put his hands over his ears and started going when he didn't want to hear any more of the questions. But he was a little off, you know, And the only reason he won that race was because his name was Al Green. He won the Democrat prime and then he got just demolished by I think it was Jim Demnt anyway. Yeah, his campaign shirt was the Green family Reunion T shirt that they hand out at his family reunion every year. So that was his campaign shirt. Jeffrey Blair at National Review says, the first thing that that must be said about this implosion is that it is perfectly in keeping with everything else we know about Katie Porter, a woman who once poured scalding hot mashed potatoes on her husband's head in a fit of peak. They're now divorced. Surprisingly, Porter's petulance, lack of preparation, and sense of entitlement were staggering. She was genuinely offended to have to answer a mildly difficult question. She acted like it was an insult not only to her intelligence, but her personal dignity. Also, her beastly reputation has long preceded her. You don't become an inner circle member of Washington's informal bad Bosses Hall of Fame any other way. But this interview is an amazing display of who she really is, the ugliness inside her heart that voters will find impossible to ignore. Okay, so this video comes out. Then within twenty four hours another video is published, this one over at Politico where this is from twenty twenty one. She's sitting for this sort of fake interview with the Energy Secretary, Jennifer Granholme, and they're talking about the awesomeness of electric vehicles. And so she's doing this over a zoom call and you don't see grand home. You just see Katie Porter, you know, like way too close to the laptop camera for my taste, at least way too close. But in the background, she's doing it from like her apartment or something. And in the background you see a staffer moving around a little bit. There's a woman in the background far in the background, and you could just see your head kind of moving around a little bit. And this is what happens. You're ready for stat number two? I am all right, six hundred and thirty two dollars and thirty two, which is how much you save in fuel and maintenance costs when you replace your traditional car with an EV with an electric vehicle. So I drive, I lease a Chevy Bolt. It is the best car that. I have ever owned. I just plug it into the garage three hole prong plug and I never. Have to go Who calls it a three hole prong plug? Nobody, nobody, Who watches this crap? Who is going to sit there and like, you know, what I need to do is I need to sit down and watch like a webinar interview, a zoom call between these two talking about how they save six hundred and thirty two dollars by switching over to an EV golf. Go to the gas station. That's awesome, And six hundred and thirty two dollars is real money. And I know here at UCI, we have a National Fuel Center research center, and they're also doing work how to make electric vehicles affordable, including for low and modern income people, working moms, single moms like me, people who really could benefit from an extra six hundred and thirty two dollars in their pocket. By the way, she's a single mom now because her husband divorced her after she you know, dumped a bunch of scalding hot mashed potatoes on its head. And it's also not just the individual savings, but it's also the total savings for our economy. So I'm on the oversight committee, you might know, and that is where we did a study recently this fall in September, and what it showed is if we don't electrify our transportation sector, that we're going to lose more than half a million Californians dying prematurely to air pollution and other problems, and the state could lose for you're out of my shot. I actually correct. It's not that vehicles. It's that you don't need the commitments pars climate. Okay, it does. Okay, you also were in my shot before that. Stay out of my shot. Okay. I'm going to start again with electric vehicle sabingus money. Perfect, Okay, Okay, So do you understand what you just heard. She's reading through her bullet points about how awesome the evs are, and she's quoting these things and stats and the work they're doing and all of this, and she says something wrong, and so her staffer, who is like at one point you see her kind of come into the frame in the background a little bit. I mean, she's behind like a shelf, like an open shelf kind of thing with some plants on it, So you don't really see. You just know there's somebody back there moving around. But she's obviously back there monitoring the zoom call here, right, And so when Katie Porter says something incorrect, the staffer comes out from behind this wall, from behind that shelf comes out behind her, and that's when Porter loses her mind on her. Get out of my shot. Get out of my bleeping shot. She screams this at her staffer right behind her, like without even breaking cadence. She's like, out of my shot. And Jennifer Grahholm is on the other side of this and her staffers are on the other side of this call, like they all see this happen once again. Privilege that you could behave this way in front of people, right, Like I'm smart enough to know that when I say this kind of stuff to my producers, it's off air. Nobody hears me saying this and being abusive to Nick and Bernie, and I am abusive to them. I like, I don't get it. Now, here's the key. This video drops. This thing is four years old. Somebody has been sitting on this video for four years, and it drops within twenty four hours after her meltdown in the CBS interview. Within twenty four hours, Politico is handed this video and they make a point to say that the staffer that Politico is not identifying out of privacy concerns, and who is not the source of the video, declined to comment, So they know who that staffer was that got yelled at. But she's not talking. She wasn't the source of the video. Somebody else gave it to her. So I'm thinking the knives are out for Katie Porter inside the Democrat Party, That's what I'm thinking. Like they saw their opportunity to like make this into a thing and to introduce Katie Porter to more California voters. Now, Katie Porter put out a statement saying, quote, it's no secret I hold myself and my staff to a high standard, and that was especially true as a member of Congress. I have sought to be more intentional in showing gratitude to my staff for their important work. Which is not an apology, in case you missed it, There not an apology. She's just like, you're damn right, I ordered the code read like that's what Her response is like, I try to show gratitude more, but I'm still gonna cuss people out. I guess that's I guess that's what she's saying. This woman is a monster. All right. That'll do it for this episode. Thank you so much for listening. I could not do the show without your support and the support of the businesses that advertise on the podcast, so if you'd like, please support them too and tell them you heard it here. You can also become a patron at my Patreon page or go to dpetecleanershow dot com. Again, thank you so much for listening, and don't break anything while I'm gone.