California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) said he plans to see Fox News host Jesse Watters in court despite an on-air apology from the host after he falsely claimed Newsom lied about a phone conversation with President Donald Trump.
Newsom filed a defamation lawsuit against Fox News and Watters last month, accusing the network of deliberately misrepresenting a phone call Newsom had with Trump amid protests in Los Angeles in June. He is suing for $787 million, a symbolic number that mirrors the amount Fox News paid to Dominion Voting Systems in 2023 for lies the network pushed about the 2020 presidential election.
The issue centers around a false claim Trump made on June 10 that he had spoken to Newsom about “a day ago” regarding his deployment of National Guard troops and Marines to Los Angeles in response to protests against Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents.
After Newsom denied having talked to Trump that recently, Trump provided a screenshot of a call log between him and Newsom to Fox News’ John Roberts. But the image instead corroborated Newsom’s account that the two had actually talked for roughly 16 minutes June 7 ― not June 9, as Trump claimed.
That didn’t stop Watters from deliberately covering for Trump later that night on his program, and claiming Newsom had lied, the lawsuit alleges.
“It is impossible to know for certain whether President Trump’s distortion was intentionally deceptive or merely a result of his poor cognitive state, but Fox’s decision to cover up for the President’s false statement cannot be so easily dismissed,” the lawsuit, obtained by HuffPost, said.
Lawyers representing Newsom sent a letter to the network saying if Watters apologized on air, they would be prepared to drop the suit. On Thursday night, Watters issued a mealy-mouthed mea culpa.
“‘Not even a voicemail’ – we took that to mean there was no call ever,” Watters said on his program. “We thought the dispute was about whether there was a phone call at all 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,” Watters added. “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 say what you mean.”
In a statement to multiple publications, Newsom made clear that Watters’ apology isn’t enough to stop the lawsuit.
“Discovery will be fun,” Newsom said. “See you in court, buddy.”
Fox News previously called the lawsuit a “transparent publicity stunt.”
“Gov. Newsom’s transparent publicity stunt is frivolous and designed to chill free speech critical of him,” Fox News said in a statement last month. “We will defend this case vigorously and look forward to it being dismissed.”