• California gubernatorial candidate Katie Porter attempted to walk out of a CBS News interview after being pressed on winning Republican votes.
• Porter snapped at reporter Julie Watts, raising her hands to the journalist’s face and calling questions unnecessarily argumentative.
• The newly-revealed footage has gone viral, reigniting criticism about Porter’s temperament and history of alleged bullying toward staff.

Katie Porter tried to end an interview with CBS News after a reporter asked how she planned to win over Republican voters in her campaign to become California’s next governor. The tense exchange, filmed last month but released Tuesday, quickly went viral as the former Democratic congresswoman visibly lost her composure on camera.

“What do you say to the 40% of California voters, who you’ll need in order to win, who voted for Trump?” Julie Watts asked during the interview. Porter curtly replied, “How would I need them in order to win, ma’am?”

When Watts suggested Porter would need those voters unless she expected to capture 60% of the vote, the candidate insisted she would win everyone who didn’t vote for Trump in a general election against a Republican. But when pressed further about facing another Democrat in California’s top-two primary system, Porter grew increasingly agitated.

Someone who used to work with Katie Porter sent me this clip from a train-wreck interview with her and said, “Now imagine what she’s like when there aren’t cameras around.” pic.twitter.com/OCF73BrUg1

— Yashar Ali 🐘 (@yashar) October 8, 2025

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The confrontation escalates

“You asked me if I needed them to win. I feel like this is unnecessarily argumentative. What is your question?” Porter snapped, raising her hands up to Watts’s face.

Watts calmly responded that every other gubernatorial candidate had answered the same question without issue. “This is not argumentative,” the journalist said.

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Porter then attempted to remove her microphone. “I don’t want to keep doing this. I’m gonna call it. Thank you,” she said, trying to end the interview.

“You’re not gonna do the interview with us?” Watts asked. Porter responded, “Nope. Not like this I’m not. Not with seven follow-ups to every single question you ask.”

When Watts explained that follow-up questions were standard practice and that other candidates had no problem with her approach, Porter interrupted, “I don’t care. I have never had to do this before. Ever.”

“I don’t want to have an unhappy experience with you and I don’t want this all on camera,” Porter concluded before eventually agreeing to continue.

A pattern of behavior

The incident quickly spread across social media, with Axios correspondent Alex Thompson and journalist Yashar Ali sharing the footage. “Someone who used to work with Katie Porter sent me this clip from a train-wreck interview with her and said, ‘Now imagine what she’s like when there aren’t cameras around,'” Ali wrote.

Porter has repeatedly been accused of bullying by former colleagues and staffers. “She has made multiple staffers cry and people are generally so anxious to even staff her because if ANYTHING goes wrong she flips out on whatever staffer is present,” one former staffer claimed in 2024.

Former Democratic Rep. Harley Rouda, who served alongside Porter in Congress, called her “a bully with a whiteboard who is in this for power and her ego” in a 2024 op-ed. Navy veteran Sasha Georgiades, a former Porter staffer, alleged the congresswoman made racist comments and ridiculed staff who reported sexual harassment.

Leading the race despite controversy

Porter currently leads the crowded field for governor with approximately 17-21% support in recent polls, positioning her as the frontrunner to succeed term-limited Gov. Gavin Newsom. The former three-term congresswoman built her national reputation by using a whiteboard to grill corporate executives during congressional hearings.

Media pundit Megyn Kelly reacted to the footage with glee: “Are there other terrible interviews with Katie Porter? This is the most entertaining, unifying thing since Tiger King!”

Can a candidate who can’t handle basic press questions handle the pressures of governing America’s largest state?

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