CA-GOV: Katie Porter Says She 'Fell Short' in Viral Video Moments

[RandySF]

In her first public comments since two viral videos surfaced last week showing her berating a staff member and belittling a news reporter, Katie Porter owned up to her missteps on Tuesday and said she was working to hold herself to a higher standard of conduct.

Ms. Porter, a former Democratic congresswoman, has been the early front-runner in next year’s race for California governor. But the videos cracked open a new phase by spurring opponents to go on the attack and intensifying the feeling among some Democrats that the party needed to find another candidate to be its standard-bearer.

On Tuesday, Ms. Porter was interviewed for the television show “Inside California Politics,” and she later appeared on a Zoom call organized by the Working Families Party, a progressive group that both endorses liberal Democrats and runs its own candidates.

“I absolutely understand that I could have been better in those moments,” Ms. Porter told activists and voters on the Zoom call. “I’m going to hold myself to that standard, to do better and to acknowledge that I fell short.”



https://www.nytimes.com/2025/10/15/us/katie-porter-videos-response.html

[QueerDuck]

1. I'm happy that she wants to improve, but I think that she'd already peaked in congress. It's all downhill from here.

In the end, I believe the voters will realize that we all can do better and will choose someone else. I could see her returning to congress someday, or maybe being hired as a cable news analyst or pundit, perhaps even using her famous whiteboard prop as a signature gimmick on her own youtube channel. We haven't heard the last of her, but it seems unlikely to me that she'll be the next Governor of California.

[GreenWave]

2. And we take the high road while the Antichrist does these things hourly with zero repercussions.

[tritsofme]

3. I suppose some people want their own version of Trump, but I don't think it's a common sentiment among Democrats.

[W_HAMILTON]

6. Expecting perfection from our candidates is partly what got us Trump to begin with.

[betsuni]

4. I don't mind the cranky episodes as much as I do the accusations of Democrats rigging elections.

[SunSeeker]

5. I really don't get what was so awful about what she said in the 2 "viral videos."

Both relate to her showing a bit of anger, but we live in the age of Trump, and what she did was nothing by comparison. Republicans are trying to push the narrative that Porter has a bad reputation as a manager because she snapped at her staffer on a 2021 Zoom call. But all she said was, "get out of my fucking shot," to a staffer who interrupted a taping Porter was making for the Biden administration. I was one of her volunteers when she ran for reelection to the House, and she treated all of us kindly, often showing up to give us a pep talk at the office where we toiled to get her reelected. I've worked for other candidates who never showed up.

In the other "viral" clip, a CBS Sacramento reporter asks Porter what she’d say to the 40 percent of California voters who voted for Trump, “who you’ll need in order to win” the governorship, about backing CA's redistricting ballot measure, Prop. 50, intended to counter Trump’s gerrymandering scheme. (Prop. 50 is almost certainly going to win, by the way.) “How would I need them in order to win, ma’am?” Porter replied, correctly questioning the premise.

The reporter wouldn't let it go and kept peppering her with followup up questions about it (something I wish reporters would do just once with Trump!), causing Porter to get annoyed and threaten to end the interview. But she did not, and continued the interview for another 20 minutes.

That's it. Those are the two videos, 4 years apart, that have people arguing her campaign is over. I guess women are not allowed to show anger even once or twice, unlike our president who is lauded for his "authenticity" when he shows anger on a daily basis.

Her real problem is she does don't have the support of the Democratic Party power players in CA. She burned a few bridges in her primary run for the Senate against Schiff, by criticizing Schiff and saying money rigged the primary. Those Dem power players are now trying to get Sen. Alex Padilla to jump in the governor's race, thinking the viral Porter videos provided an opening to knock down her frontrunner status and signal to Padilla that it is a race he can win.

But Porter got the EMILYs List endorsement last week, and Teamsters California and other supporters haven’t abandoned her amid this firestorm. Her momentum doesn’t seem to have been reversed for now, as CA voters are more concerned with the pocketbook issues she is so adept at discussing than intra-party politics. A statewide poll last week found that even with Padilla included on the list of potential candidates, Porter was the survey respondents’ top pick. https://www.politico.com/news/2025/09/08/california-insiders-alex-padilla-run-governor-00545818

I'd be fine with Porter or Padilla. I'm just sick of the double standard women face in politics when it comes to candidates expressing anger: an angry woman is seen as venomous, an angry man is seen as assertive.

[Bettie]

10. Women aren't allowed to show anger

even among Democrats...women have to be 100% perfect at all times, men get a pass for nearly everything.

Look at the amount of hate being spewed at her.

Misogyny is the heart of this country, along with racism.

[SunSeeker]

11. She used one expletive, it was not an expletive laden rant.

All she said was, "get out of my fucking shot," to a staffer who interrupted a taping Porter was making for the Biden administration in 2021. I am sure if a male candidate had said the same thing, we would not even be talking about it. I was one of her volunteers when she ran for reelection to the House, and she treated all of us kindly, often showing up to give us a pep talk at the office where we toiled to get her reelected. I've worked for other candidates who never showed up.

In the other "viral" clip, this one recent, a CBS Sacramento reporter asks Porter what she’d say to the 40 percent of California voters who voted for Trump, “who you’ll need in order to win” the governorship, about backing CA's redistricting ballot measure, Prop. 50, intended to counter Trump’s gerrymandering scheme. (Prop. 50 is almost certainly going to win, by the way.) “How would I need them in order to win, ma’am?” Porter replied, correctly questioning the premise.

The reporter wouldn't let it go and kept peppering her with followup up questions about it (something I wish reporters would do just once with Trump!), causing Porter to get annoyed and threaten to end the interview. But she did not end it, and continued the interview for another 20 minutes.

That's it. Those are the two videos, 4 years apart, that have people arguing her campaign is over. I guess women are not allowed to show anger even once or twice, unlike our president who is lauded for his "authenticity" when he shows anger on a daily basis.

You can tell your daughters and nieces that women can get angry, just like men.

[themaguffin]

8. I really like her when she was in Congress. All of this is very disappointing.

[republianmushroom]

9. Ms. Porter your standard of conduct is typical republicans standards.

Ms. Porter has to "work" to hold her self to a higher standard of conduct.

[SunSeeker]

13. No, she'd have to do a lot worse than saying one expletive every 4 years to match a typical Republican.

She'd have to be sexually harassing her staffers, or random people in airport bathrooms, or grifting off her job, and/or doing the bidding of billionaires while screwing over working people. She hasn't done any of that.

But yes, as a woman America expects her to hold herself to a "higher standard," one America doesn't hold men to, let alone Republicans.

[SunImp]

15. Some here think she is like Trump tho

[SunSeeker]

16. Right? Where's her gold Boeing 747?

[SunSeeker]

17. KTLA, Los Angeles' GOP Nexstar station, is carrying that clip on loop. Why do you think that is?

KTLA, a Republican owned station that literally ignores the insanity of Trump and the devastation of Los Angeles ICE raids, now thinks that a candidate using a swear word in talking to her staffer in private is the scandal of the century.

There is ONE video (not "videos" ) of her telling a staffer, "get out of my fucking shot," when that staffer interrupted a taping Porter was making for the Biden administration in 2021. That was not her "berating and humiliating staffers," that was her snapping at one staffer to get out of a shot.

Might there be more like that? She doesn't know, and obviously she has a disgruntled staffer who was saving unflattering stuff about her, so there could be more embarrassing videos. As there would be for any candidate. It would be stupid to say No and then another video comes out. Then she'd be called a liar. And she can't say yes since she doesn't know for sure. So she just avoided responding. Who Cares?

What Californian's care about is who is going to make their lives more affordable here, so they don't have to move out of the state they love in order to afford a home.

Can we focus on the issues that matter? That is how we win elections. Don't let Republicans set our agenda.

[SunSeeker]

19. Really. Telling a staffer to get the fuck out of a shot does not create a "victim," let alone an actionable claim.

This is not "workplace harrassment." I am sick and tired of talented female Dem candidates being thrown to the curb because they are not Mary Poppins. That is letting us get played by Republicans.