Photo: Jerod Harris/Getty Images for Demand Justice
California gubernatorial candidate and former representative Katie Porter — she of whiteboard-math fame — is no stranger to going viral. During her time in Congress, she often engineered moments that seemed designed to spread far and wide on the internet. However, she’s currently going viral for all the wrong reasons. The politician made a big splash this week by threatening to end an interview after a reporter asked what she would say to Trump voters in the state.
The question was posed by CBS News correspondent Julie Watts as part of a series of sit-downs with the state’s gubernatorial candidates, all of whom were asked the same question. But Porter, the current front-runner in the race, seemed to find it insulting.
Porter: “I don’t want to have an unhappy experience with you.”
Reporter: “I don’t want to have an unhappy experience with you, either.”
— Christopher Cadelago (@ccadelago) October 8, 2025
“What do you say to the 40 percent of California voters, who you’ll need in order to win, who voted for Trump?” Watts asked.
“How would I need them in order to win, ma’am?” Porter replied, laughing and looking at someone off-camera. Watts then asked Porter to clarify if she thought that, in a general election, all 60 percent of non-Trump voters would vote for her. “In a general election? Yes,” Porter said. “If it is me versus a Republican, I think that I will win the people who did not vote for Trump.”
However, California operates its state elections under a top-two primary system, meaning that it’s possible for the gubernatorial race to come down to two Democrats. A candidate might need Republican voters come the 2026 election, which could be difficult if Prop. 50 — Governor Gavin Newsom’s current bid to hit back at Trump by redistricting the state, adding more Democrats to Congress — goes through this November. Basically, it’s a good question to press the candidates on. Watts asked Porter what would happen in that scenario to which Porter replied, “I don’t intend that to be the case.”
Porter then launched into an answer about her experience representing a purple district in Orange County and how she already has support in terms of name recognition. After a few more follow-ups from Watts, she grew visibly irritated.
“I feel like this is unnecessarily argumentative,” Porter said, putting her hands up. After some more back-and-forth about the question, Porter tried to call it quits on the interview. “I don’t want to keep doing this,” she said to someone off-camera. “I’m gonna call it. Thank you.” She then appeared to try and remove her microphone.
“You’re not going to do the interview with us?” Watts asked.
“Nope, not like this I’m not. Not with seven follow-ups to every question you ask,” Porter said. When Watts told her that every other candidate had answered the question, Porter said she didn’t care. “I want to have a pleasant, positive conversation [in] which you ask me about every issue on this list,” Porter said. “And if every question, you’re going to make up a follow-up question, then we’re never going to get there.”
Watts explained that asking follow-up questions is part of her job, prompting Porter to say, “I don’t want to have an unhappy experience with you, and I don’t want this all on-camera.”
Unfortunately for Porter, she was already on-camera. The clip went viral on Tuesday and offered several other gubernatorial candidates a free talking point. Democrat Xavier Becerra, former Health and Human Services secretary under Joe Biden, used the video to highlight his own answer to the question in a post on X. Former Los Angeles mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, another Democrat, also shared the video, adding, “We need a leader who will solve hard problems and answer simple questions.”
In a statement, a spokesperson for Porter’s campaign told Politico that the former congresswoman did not actually leave. “The interview moved on and continued for another 20 minutes,” they said, which was then confirmed by CBS News. Still, this is, of course, not the best look for Porter, who has long been plagued by accusations of a hot temper and fostering a toxic work environment. In an interview on The View in 2023, she was able to spin the accusation, saying, “Lots of so-called bad bosses are women and, disproportionately, people of color. I think it’s really unfortunate, because those are the very voices we need more of in our government.” See, that’s how you respond to a question you don’t really want to answer.
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