It\u2019s been a rough week or so for gubernatorial candidate (and former representative) Katie Porter (D-Irvine) \u2014 the kind of stretch that makes you wonder if her campaign bus runs on gas or spite.<\/p>\n
First, Porter, 51, threatened to walk out of an interview<\/a> with a local CBS affiliate after the interviewer had the unmitigated gall \u2014 gall! \u2014 to ask her<\/a> what she would say to the 40% of California voters who voted for Trump.<\/p>\n Porter\u2019s response was less \u201cmeasured stateswoman\u201d and more \u201csubstitute teacher after her fourth Starbucks of the day.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cHow would I need them in order to win, ma\u2019am?\u201d she snapped.<\/p>\n The reporter had a point. In California, the top two vote-getters emerge from the primary and face off in the general election, meaning that whoever hopes to win might need a few Republican votes to put them over the top.<\/p>\n But the moment was less about math or civics \u2014 and more about tone.<\/p>\n Then came the meltdown. \u201cI don\u2019t want to keep doing this. \u2026 Not with seven follow-ups to every single question you ask. \u2026 I don\u2019t want to have an unhappy experience with you, and I don\u2019t want this all on camera.\u201d<\/p>\n If you\u2019re first learning about this in print \u2014 where facial expressions and inflection are harder to convey \u2014 Porter\u2019s vibe was \u2026 intense. Let\u2019s just say, you wouldn\u2019t want to ever have an \u201cunhappy experience\u201d with her.<\/p>\n And then, another shoe dropped \u2014 this time, courtesy of Politico, which unearthed a 2021 video showing Porter barking at a staffer who had walked into frame while she was recording a conversation.<\/p>\n \u201cGet out of my f\u2014ing shot,\u201d<\/a> she told an employee, while recording an interview with then-Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm.<\/p>\n After the staffer pleaded their case, Porter doubled down with the demeanor of a DMV worker on her last nerve: \u201cOK, you also were in my shot before that. Stay out of my shot.\u201d<\/p>\n For anyone who\u2019s ever had horrible bosses (we all have), it was reminiscent of \u201cThe Devil Wears Prada\u201d \u2014 if Meryl Streep had a whiteboard<\/a> and a congressional pension, that is.<\/p>\n Now, Porter\u2019s \u201cmean boss\u201d act might not matter if she were some fringe candidate that nobody was paying attention to. But she\u2019s currently the front-runner for next year\u2019s California gubernatorial race.<\/p>\n And the thing is, we\u2019ve now got a pattern, a narrative, a trend. What this means is that a) there could be more videos to come<\/a> (leaked, no doubt, by a plethora of disgruntled employees she\u2019s left in her wake), and b) we are also being reminded of past indiscretions that suddenly make more sense.<\/p>\n In 2013 divorce proceedings, for example, Porter\u2019s husband alleges<\/a> she dumped scalding mashed potatoes on his head, \u201croutinely\u201d called him a \u201cf\u2014ing idiot,\u201d shattered a glass coffee pot because their house wasn\u2019t clean enough and wouldn\u2019t let him have a cellphone \u201cbecause, \u2018You\u2019re too f\u2014ing dumb to operate it.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n If you\u2019ve ever been warned to \u201cWatch how your date treats the waitress, because eventually she\u2019ll treat you the same way,\u201d Porter is starting to look like a similar ticking time bomb.<\/p>\n Now, Porter\u2019s defenders will say she\u2019s just \u201ctough\u201d and that she\u2019s not here to play nice. I mean, won\u2019t Democrats need someone strong to take on President Trump and MAGA?<\/p>\n Sure, but there\u2019s a yawning chasm between being tough on the Republicans and being cruel to the interns. Voters want a fighter. But they don\u2019t want a jerk. Almost everyone has had a bad boss who made them dread Mondays \u2014 or every day. And they remember that trauma.<\/p>\n Others will say, \u201cWell, isn\u2019t it sexist to criticize a powerful woman for being assertive?\u201d Maybe. But also, times have changed. No one gets a pass anymore to act like Porter has. If the series had premiered in 2025, Ari Gold from HBO\u2019s \u201cEntourage\u201d would have been canceled before the first episode finished airing.<\/p>\n We\u2019ve collectively decided that maybe people shouldn\u2019t be screamed at just for trying to do an honest day\u2019s work and collect a meager paycheck.<\/p>\n Heck, even our football coaches have started toning down the verbal abuse of players.<\/p>\n Ironically, the best argument for defending Porter\u2019s behavior is the one being made by people who think anti-bullying policies have made Americans too \u201csoft\u201d (Pete Hegseth, call your office<\/a>).<\/p>\n Look, politics isn\u2019t for the weak. But voters can tell the difference between toughness and meanness. Between grit and malice. Between fighting for people and just fighting people.<\/p>\n And sadly, Porter seems to veer into the latter.<\/p>\n During his presidential campaigns, Democrats were quick to criticize Trump\u2019s lack of temperament. They said \u201ccharacter is destiny.\u201d They had a point.<\/p>\n When someone shows you who they are \u2014 especially when you can see multiple examples of it on video \u2014 the logical thing to do is simple: Believe them.<\/p>\n Matt K. Lewis is the author of \u201cFilthy Rich Politicians<\/a>\u201d and \u201cToo Dumb to Fail<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It\u2019s been a rough week or so for gubernatorial candidate (and former representative) Katie Porter (D-Irvine) \u2014 the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":9495,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[7,9,8,4970,217,9194,1520,146,9192,7755,592,5250,9193,315,1519,9195,5050,1522],"class_list":{"0":"post-9494","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-california","8":"tag-california","9":"tag-california-headlines","10":"tag-california-news","11":"tag-california-voter","12":"tag-day","13":"tag-example","14":"tag-interview","15":"tag-katie-porter","16":"tag-mean-boss","17":"tag-one","18":"tag-people","19":"tag-shot","20":"tag-staffer","21":"tag-time","22":"tag-trump","23":"tag-unmitigated-gall","24":"tag-video","25":"tag-voter"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9494","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9494"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9494\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9495"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9494"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9494"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9494"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}