In June, Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-CA) launched a defamation lawsuit aimed at Fox News and host Jesse Watters for what he labeled as lies shared by the network. On Thursday, Watters addressed those claims.
Newsom previously claimed that Fox News lied about his statements relating to his communication with President Donald Trump amidst the ICE protests happening in Los Angeles last month. Newsom claims he spoke with President Trump on June 7th, about one day before more than 2,000 California National Guard members were deployed in Los Angeles to quell anti-ICE riots in the city. On June 10th, however, Trump claimed he had spoken with Newsom “a day ago”, which insinuated that he had spoken with the governor the day 700 U.S. Marines were sent to Los Angeles, which Newsom refuted.
In response, however, Jesse Watters alleged that Newsom had lied in his statements. “Why would Newsom lie and claim Trump never called him?” he said on the network.
Lawyers for the governor argue that Watters’ comments meet the legal standard for defamation and could have been harmful to Newsom’s reputation with voters. They filed a lawsuit seeking a symbolic $787.5 million from the network, the same figure it paid Dominion Voting Systems to settle a lawsuit about the validity of the 2020 presidential election.
After the lawsuit, Gavin Newsom said he would gladly accept an apology from Jesse Watters for what he viewed as incorrect statements.
On Thursday’s episode of Jesse Watters Primetime, the Fox News host did apologize for his statements but was rather sarcastic in his delivery.
“We thought the dispute was about whether there had been a call at all, not when,” Watters began. “We thought that the governor was clear when he said — without qualification — that there was no call.
“Now, Newsom’s 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?”
Watters added that he had offered Newsom the chance to appear on his show to “talk it out, man to man” but that the California governor had declined that offer.
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Jesse is just such an a…..e. Not into politics. My friend was watching this c..p and I said who is this arrogant, stupid jerk. He went on and on about him. I told him to put the game back on. Such an entitled spoiled brat who got a tv job.