Gavin Newsom showed no remorse to Fox News’ Jesse Watters after the host was forced to issue a groveling apology over the network’s reporting on Donald Trump’s phone call to the California governor.
Newsom filed a $787 million defamation lawsuit against the network—the same amount Fox had to cough up to Dominion Voting Systems for airing false claims about the 2020 election—claiming it misrepresented calls between him and Trump about unrest during the anti-ICE protests in Los Angeles.
On his Thursday night show, Watters backpedaled, admitting Newsom was right to fire back at Trump’s claim that he spoke to him on June 9. Newsom posted on X last month: “There was no call. Not even a voicemail.”
“We thought the dispute was about whether there had been a call at all, not when,” Watters said. “We thought the governor was clear when he said, without qualification, that there was no call. Now Newsom is telling us what was in his head when he wrote the tweet.
“He didn’t deceive anybody on purpose, so I’m sorry, he wasn’t lying. He was just confusing and unclear. Next time, governor, why don’t you just say what you mean?”
Newsom fired back at Watter’s snide remarks. “Discovery will be fun. See you in court, buddy,” he told the Los Angeles Times.
In the suit, Newsom claims Watters deceptively edited video footage aired on his primetime show to back up Trump’s version of events.
Newsom acknowledges he spoke with Trump in the early hours of June 7 about the protests.
On June 10, Trump told reporters at the Oval Office he had spoken with Newsom “a day ago.” But when Watters aired the clip, he left out that part and accused Newsom of lying when he said Trump never called him.
On Thursday, Watters admitted that Newsom’s complaint that there was no Trump call on June 9 was accurate while still defending the network’s editorial decision.
“Based on what we knew at the time, I asked, ‘Why would Newsom lie and claim Trump never called him?’” Watters said. “Newsom says he meant there was no call, not even a voicemail, a day ago, and he was arguing only about when the call happened, not whether it happened at all.”
“Newsom thinks it would’ve been clearer if we played the full clip where President Trump said they spoke a day ago. We left that out because it didn’t seem relevant,” he added. “We thought the dispute was about whether there had been a call at all, not when.”
Fox News did not immediately respond to a request for comment from the Daily Beast.
