Apparently, former Rep. Katie Porter acting like human trash on camera was basically what it took to convince California Democrats that Katie Porter acts like human trash.
The news here isn’t the viral video clip — although, in case you haven’t seen it, I’ll show you it in a second; if you have seen it, I’ll also show you it in a second, and watch it again because it’s hysterical — that’s put her sure-thing California gubernatorial run on the skids.
Rather, the news is that this is news. Because, from what we’ve known about her, she’s pretty much had the professional bearing of Anna Wintour on day 16 of a meth binge for her entire career in politics, including that time she berated a staffer for being distracted by a friend’s murder and not properly testing for COVID.
But first, the clip — which, you know, chef emoji, kiss emoji, repeat 20 times:
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.” pic.twitter.com/OCF73BrUg1
— Yashar Ali ???? (@yashar) October 8, 2025
This threat to walk out of an interview with a local CBS news reporter in California was the first major speed bump for her gubernatorial campaign. Porter, who is on the far left of the Democratic Party, had a reputation of being difficult, but nobody was bringing it up — at least not yet. She was the odds-on favorite to begin with and the other big name that was going to step into the 2026 race, potentially — Kamala Harris — announced she was sitting this one out.
“Porter, whose name identification far exceeds her rivals thanks to her national profile as a whiteboard-wielding anti-corporate warrior and her failed statewide bid for Senate last year, has consistently led in polls since Kamala Harris opted out of running for governor,” Politico noted. “She has scooped up some major endorsements, including EMILY’s List, which backs female candidates who support abortion rights, and statewide unions such as the National Union of Healthcare Workers and the Teamsters.”
Her Democrat rivals “quickly seized” on the moment, Politico reported — strong language when you consider it’s usually only Republicans who seize and/or pounce. Among the better reactions: Former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa taking “the unusual step of purchasing three-minute ads in the Sacramento market to run the entirety of Porter’s tense exchange with CBS reporter Julie Watts.”
“Is this a disaster? Yes,” one California Democratic strategist said.
If you thought that was the worst of it, it brought back other bad memories Democrats might have of Porter, including her claim that now-Sen. Adam Schiff “rigged” the 2024 Senate race to replace Dianne Feinstein by elevating Republican candidate Steve Garvey in the jungle primary.
And then came another video, this time of Porter verbally abusing a staffer for getting into the shot of a Zoom spot she was cutting with then-Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm:
WARNING: The following video contains vulgar language that some viewers will find offensive.
NEW: Dem CA gubernatorial candidate Katie Porter seen having a profanity-laced meltdown on one of her staffers in footage obtained by Politico.
“Get out of my f*cking shot!” Porter barked.
The meeting was in July 2021 between Porter and then-Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm,… pic.twitter.com/ajVdlNlGhc
— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) October 8, 2025
And that brought back other memories — including the time she blamed a staffer for her not following COVID testing protocol and giving her the dread flu despite the fact the staffer had been apparently distracted by the murder of a friend.
From Fox News in 2022:
Screenshots of text messages between Porter and her former Wounded Warrior program fellow, Sasha Georgiades, were published by the Dear White Staffers Twitter account on Thursday.
The post said the text messages were shared “with permission” from the staffer who shared them and detail a conversation between Porter and Georgiades over the office’s COVID-19 protocols. …
According to the published texts, Porter asked Georgiades on July 8 why she did “not follow office protocol on testing” for COVID-19, calling it “really disappointing.”
“I’m terribly sorry. You’re right, I should have done better,” Georgiades responded the same day. “Just because I felt okay in the moment doesn’t mean that I was.”
“Sasha— I cannot allow you back in the office, given your failure to follow office policies,” Porter wrote the next day on July 9. “Cody will be in touch about having your personal effects shipped or delivered to your home, and will lay out your remote work schedule and responsibilities for your last few weeks.”
“I understand. Thank you for the last two years and all that I have learned,” Georgiades responded. “I hate to have disappointed you in the manner, as I know it isn’t an excuse I had found out my friend from the Navy had been murdered and my head was not in the best place.”
It was initially reported that she was fired for the “breach.”
VIBE CHECK: Rep. Katie Porter fires staffer after both test positive for COVID. Full texts from the Congresswoman firing the staffer via text. Shared with permission from staffer. pic.twitter.com/jbhn2NzrmB
— Dear White Staffers (@dearwhitestaff) December 29, 2022
It was later noted that the staffer in question had an agreed-upon end date and that she was effectively told to work from home after that.
STATEMENT: https://t.co/UMibG7RZyS
— Dear White Staffers (@dearwhitestaff) December 29, 2022
However, after finding out that the employee was distracted because her friend was murdered, this was Porter’s response: “Well, you gave me Covid. In 25 months, it took you not following the rules to get me sick.” The party of empathy, ladies and gentlemen.
Porter somehow muddled through, like over 99 percent of infected persons. The former staffer’s friend, not so lucky.
However, the new clip combined with this old exchange has pretty much opened up the floodgates on what was common knowledge: If Porter isn’t a garbage individual by nature, she sure acts like it in the office. Or in romantic relationships; her ex-husband, Matthew Hoffman, said in divorce records that Porter “would verbally abuse him, throw objects at him, and once poured burning-hot mashed potatoes on him during a fight,” NewsNation reported.
And if voters didn’t know that Porter was a malicious crone, Democrats sure seemed to. From Politico:
While her aggressive questioning of corporate executives during congressional hearings earned her national plaudits, that hard-charging style made it harder for her to win friends in Washington.
Notably, nearly every California House Democrat endorsed then-Reps. Schiff or Barbara Lee over Porter in last year’s Senate showdown. Porter later angered many Democrats and drew a rebuke from Padilla when she responded to her loss by accusing Schiff of seeking to “rig” the results.
The lingering skepticism about Porter among California’s political elite is evident in her campaign finances. Since July 1, she has trailed [former Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier] Becerra in collecting checks totaling $5,000 or more — the kind of large-dollar donations that are the bread and butter of statewide races in California. Becerra has raised $465,000 while Porter brought in just over $400,000. (Porter’s campaign noted that a similar dynamic played out earlier in the year, and that she vastly outraised Becerra in small-dollar donations in that time period.) [Emphasis ours.]
If you’re the odds-on favorite to run the biggest state in the nation and someone else is leading you in donations from political bigwigs — who want nothing more than to be close to the person in power — there’s a problem. And that problem, it seems, goes beyond getting frustrated with walking out of interviews over simple questions or dumping boiling potatoes on your ex-husband. (Allegedly. Cough cough.)
And then there’s another great story that came out in the wake of how she treated the staffer whose friend was murdered and forgot COVID testing protocol.
After Porter’s then-partner was arrested at a town hall in Irvine, California for punching a pro-Trump protester in 2021, she texted this to the mayor of Irvine: “I am a United States Congress woman. You can lecture me on professionalism. And see what happens.”
Yes, we can see: Eventually, your hubris dumps boiling potatoes on your dreams and your poll numbers. We can’t say it didn’t happen to a better person.
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