A seemingly benign question about the California gubernatorial race led to a candidate trying storm out of an interview with a CBS reporter.
CBS News’ Julie Watts was interviewing former Democratic Rep. Katie Porter (D-Calif.) when she asked Porter getting the Republican vote in her quest for California governor, per Mediaite.
Footage of the interview, which took place in September, shows Porter snapping at Watts.
“What do you say to the 40% 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 responded.
“Well, unless you think you’re gonna get 60% of the vote,” Watts said.“Everybody who did not vote for Trump will vote for you? That’s what you’re saying?”
”In a general election, yes. If it’s me versus a Republican, I think that I will win the people who did not vote for Trump,” Porter said.
“What if it’s you versus another Democrat?” Watts asked.
“I don’t intend that to be the case,” Porter answered.
“So, how do you not intend that to be the case? Are you gonna ask them not to run?” Watts continued.
“No, no. I’m saying I’m gonna build the support. I have the support already in terms of name recognition, and so I am gonna 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,” Porter said. “I represented a purple area. I have stood on my own two feet and won Republican votes before, and that’s not something every candidate in this race can say…”
“But you just said you don’t need those Trump voters,” Watts retorted.
“You asked me if I needed them to win. I feel like this is unnecessarily argumentative. What is your question?” Porter snapped as she raised her hands up Watts’ face.
Watts replied, “Every other candidate has answered this question. This is not argumentative.”
Watts repeated the question and Porter tried to take off her microphone.
“I don’t want to keep doing this. I’m gonna call it. Thank you,” Porter said.
“You’re not gonna do the interview with us?” Watts asked.
“Nope. Not like this I’m not. Not with seven follow-ups to every single question you ask,” Porter said.
Watts pointed out every other candidate answered the same question.
“I don’t care… I have never had to do this before. Ever,” Porter said.
“You’ve never had to have a conversation with a reporter?” Watts asked.
“To end an interview,” Porter said.
Watts then tried to salvage the interview.
“OK, 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 these and if you don’t want to answer, you don’t want to answer,” Watts suggested.
“I don’t want to have an unhappy experience with you and I don’t want this all on camera,” Porter responded.
Axios national political correspondent Alex Thompson and journalist Yashar Ali published the interview clip Tuesday evening.
Watch:
“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.
