With NBC’s Today force-feeding White House propaganda to its viewers on Monday, CBS Mornings was dishing out embarrassing free publicity for far-left Congresswoman Katie Porter (D-CA) ahead of her new memoir and Senate campaign, fawning over her “plan of attack” in committee hearings, “balancing it all” as a single mom, and pushing her to run for president.
Naturally, CBS ignored Porter’s actual upbringing of privilege and the litany of reports about her toxic work environment in her House office. Among the allegations, Porter has been accused of angry tirades, racism, and, in one particular incident, berating a staffer and blaming them for giving her COVID-19 before firing them.
Socialist co-host Tony Dokopuil was juiced from the get-go in a tease: “Congresswoman Katie Porter [is] known for challenging the powerful on Capitol Hill, but she is also a single mom and she spoke to our Natalie Morales about balancing it all.”
Dokoupil gushed in the lead-in that they’d profile Porter, “an outspoken figure in the Democratic Party” and “the first single mom of young kids in Congress” who now has a memoir, I Swear: Politics Is Messier Than My Minivan.
“Natalie Morales took a drive with Porter and they spoke about her unique style of questioning — unique is a nice word for it — powerful witnesses in Congress,” he added.
Morales began with a series of soundbites from Porter at congressional hearings and gushing that, “[w]hen...Porter takes the mic, she has a plan of attack” and an “ability to challenge some of the titans of industry” that’s “made her viral and a go-to guest on late night talk shows.” She promptly fed into Porter’s preferred framing of an every-person beset with an uncaring system: “What advice did you get early on from your fellow Members in Congress about how to do your job?”
Porter replied she “asked about the schedule, I said, can we figure out what we’re doing” so she could “tell my childcare provider” and was told “we just can’t run Congress around people like you.”
Our friends at the Free Beacon went through her background and, spoiler alert, she wasn’t exactly middle class.
The former Today host then fawned over Porter’s mini-van (click “expand”):
MORALES: This is the minivan from the title of her new memoir.
PORTER: We’ve got a weird book from an ex-boyfriend. We have a project that I never had time to help my daughter with.
MORALES: With personalized plates that read “Ovrsite,” Porter says she’s a rule follower while cruising her neighborhood near UC Irvine’s Law School where she used to teach. [TO PORTER] When you’re in this minivan, do you ever rock out a little carpool karaoke?
PORTER: Well, for a long time, I didn’t have a working radio.
MORALES: Oh, okay.
PORTER: And maybe, The Chicks.
MORALES: In the book, Porter shares light-hearted parenting tales, but she also reveals a darker time as a victim of domestic abuse.
Morales also played up her kids and Porter’s nickname from her kids of “Congressmom” as well as an alleged joke one of them made that they’d “like some time to consider my legal rights” after reading their mom’s memoir.
Attempting to come off as a semi-serious interviewer, she tried to ask Porter if she was up for mental competence tests, ran in part due to the alleged mental state of outgoing California Senator, Dianne Feinstein (D), and what makes her better than top rival, TV news denizen and Congressman Adam Schiff (D-CA).
But it was short-lived as Morales ended by encouraging her to run for president: “You are running for the Senate now, but are there perhaps bigger aspirations someday, the White House?”
After Porter said she’s “always been the kind of person who looked for ways to make a difference,” Morales excitedly followed up: “So, it sounds like you’re very open to the idea or the suggestion?”
Porter offered an answer she would want to run one day:
I think it’s silly to say no. I think government service is important...I’m 49 and I’m considered young by congressional standards...[I]t is important for new voices, voices that often haven’t been heard in our government, whether those are people of color or indigenous people, LGBTQ people, to look for those doors of opportunity.
Back live, the back-and-forth was nauseating with co-host and Democratic donor Gayle King gushing that she’s certain Americans and especially Californians watched this piece and concluded, “you go, Katie Porter” as “[t]here is so much about her that was so relatable” (click “expand”):
MORALES: Katie Porter has been called the Whiteboard Wizard. She loves the whiteboard, and as you saw, her kids are actually fans of having that whiteboard in their house. They say they can express themselves, and also, it’s a place where Congress Mom often leaves them a list of chores, guys.
GAYLE KING: Wow, Natalie, that seems like a great afternoon to me that you spent. I can see men and women all around looking at this certainly in California saying, you go, Katie Porter.
DOKOUPIL: Yeah.
KING: There is so much about her that was so relatable to so many different things —
MORALES: Yeah.
KING: — in our lives and her lives [sic]. I’m so glad you brought that to us.
MORALES: She tells it like it is. Yeah, she does.
KING: She really does.
MORALES: She is pretty real.
DOKOUPIL: It’s a great piece. And I’ve been feeling her kids do those chores that she writes on the whiteboard.
VLADIMIR DUTHIERS: Yeah, for sure.
MORALES: They do.
DUTHIERS: While not spreading sand in that minivan.
KING: That’s right. I love that. Natalie, thanks a lot. That was a great piece.
CBS’s puffball propaganda for an ultra-left member of Congress was made possible thanks to the backing of advertisers such as Angi, Febreze, and Nature’s Bounty. Follow the links to see their contact information at the MRC’s Conservatives Fight Back page.
To see the relevant transcript from April 10, click “expand.”
CBS Mornings
April 10, 2023
8:00 a.m. Eastern [TEASE][ON-SCREEN HEADLINE: Rep. Katie Porter’s Memoir]
TONY DOKOUPIL: Congresswoman Katie Porter known for challenging the powerful on Capitol Hill, but she is also a single mom and she spoke to our Natalie Morales about balancing it all.
(....)
8:02 a.m. Eastern
[ON-SCREEN HEADLINE: Rep. Katie Porter’s Road to Success; Congresswoman on New Memoir, Parenthood & Running for U.S. Senate]
DOKOUPIL: All right, we’re going to begin this hour with an outspoken figure in the Democratic Party. I am talking about California Representative Katie Porter, who became the first single mom of young kids in Congress after she was elected back in 2018, and now, she has joined the race to replace Senator Dianne Feinstein who is retiring. Porter has also written a memoir. I love this title. I Swear: Politics Is Messier Than My Minivan. Natalie Morales took a drive with Porter and they spoke about her unique style of questioning — unique is a nice word for it — powerful witnesses in Congress.
CONGRESSWOMAN KATIE PORTER (D-CA): The drug didn’t get any better. The cancer patients didn’t get any better. You just got better at making money.
NATALIE MORALES: When Congresswoman Katie Porter takes the mic, she has a plan of attack.
PORTER: That you’re feeding us lies, that we must pay astronomical prices to get innovative treatments is false.
MORALES: Her ability to challenge some of the titans of industry has made her viral and a go-to guest on late night talk shows.
SAMANTHA BEE (on TBS’s Full Frontal With Samantha Bee, 04/08/20) [TO PORTER]: Are you exhausted from appearing in every Republican’s nightmares?
KATIE PORTER (D-CA)(on TBS’s Full Frontal With Samantha Bee, 04/08/20): No, I think that’s a very comfortable role for me.
BEE (on TBS’s Full Frontal With Samantha Bee, 04/08/20): Okay.
PORTER (D-CA) (on TBS’s Full Frontal With Samantha Bee, 04/08/20): If you’re a full of [bleep], I’m coming for you. [TO VOTER] Excellent.
NATALIE MORALES: Porter first ran for office in 2018, flipping an Orange County District, long considered a Republican stronghold. She became the first single mom of young kids working in Congress. Luke was 12, Paul 10, and Betsy seven, when their mother was sworn in. [TO PORTER] What advice did you get early on from your fellow Members in Congress about how to do your job?
PORTER: When I asked about the schedule, I said, can we figure out what we’re doing? Because I need to tell my childcare provider. They said, well, we just can’t run Congress around people like you and I said, what do you mean like people like me? Well, you have such a special situation. And I said, special? There’s like 10 million, 12 million single parents out there. The only place where that’s special is in Congress, not in America. [TO MORALES] We’ve got some sand from the beach.
MORALES: This is the minivan from the title of her new memoir.
PORTER: We’ve got a weird book from an ex-boyfriend. We have a project that I never had time to help my daughter with.
MORALES: With personalized plates that read “Ovrsite,” Porter says she’s a rule follower while cruising her neighborhood near UC Irvine’s Law School where she used to teach. [TO PORTER] When you’re in this minivan, do you ever rock out a little carpool karaoke?
PORTER: Well, for a long time, I didn’t have a working radio.
MORALES: Oh, okay.
PORTER: And maybe, The Chicks.
MORALES: In the book, Porter shares light-hearted parenting tales, but she also reveals a darker time as a victim of domestic abuse. She writes: “My ex-husband got angrier and more violent as the realization that they were divorcing became clearer.” Porter “slept with a chair propped against the doorknob.”
PORTER: It was hard to have to go back to something that I just desperately wanted to have me in the past.
MORALES: You also understood the importance of your voice, to be that voice in Washington to talk about domestic abuse.
PORTER: You — you — when that kind of thing is happening to you, like I said, it’s very personal, and you often experience it alone. Who do you tell? Who can you trust? And when I spoke out about it in the campaign, I was shocked and saddened how many people came up to me and said, you know, that happened to me.
MORALES: Her kids have grown up campaigning, nicknaming her “Congressmom.” When Porter won her seat last November, her son, Paul, introduced her to supporters recalling his reaction when mom first told them she was entering politics.
PAUL PORTER: My brother, Luke and I looked at each other, and said, “This hobby isn’t going to last long.”
MORALES: Are you worried about them reading the book and —
PORTER: Yeah, I let the kids read the book before it was published, because I knew it would be painful for them. One of the things they said was, I’d like some time to consider my legal rights. And another one said —
MORALES: It sounds like your kids.
PORTER: — another one said, this is why I don’t read memoirs. So they definitely are probably not going to be leaving any, you know, any amazing reviews on the book. [TO MORALES] You can get flour and sugar —
MORALES: Porter travels to Washington at least three times a month, so most meals are prepped ahead of time and there is a whiteboard in the house. Congressmom is now in a race being called a dramatic showdown to fill the Senate seat Dianne Feinstein has held since 1992. [TO PORTER] It’s been reported Senator Feinstein, who is 89, is suffering from cognitive decline. She has denied that. Do you think, though, there should be an evaluation of mental fitness for candidates running for public office?
PORTER: So, I think the solution to this is to make sure that every candidate every campaign, the voters really have a chance to meet them, to test them, to challenge them, and to make their own decisions about whether or not to support them.
MORALES: You said at the time you think it’s time for change.
PORTER: It is time for change.
MORALES: So, were you saying that it was time for a change that Dianne Feinstein was not up to the task of the job?
PORTER: Well, what I’m saying is, it’s time for change, but we also need people who are new, who see the problems facing the next generation or younger generations, and that’s why I decided to run.
MORALES: Porter’s toughest challenger might be California Congressman Adam Schiff, who played a key role in former President Trump’s first impeachment. [TO PORTER] You’ve called yourself a warrior. Are you more of a warrior than Congressman Schiff is?
PORTER: Congressman Schiff is a career politician. I think I’m closer to what it’s like to be a regular American citizen watching TV, you’re reading the paper and wondering why the heck does Congress not work? [on The Problem With Jon Stewart Podcast, on 11/02/22] [TO STEWART] Inflation is always complex. Anyone who says and this is the Republicans all day long, inflation is bad. No [bleep], Sherlock, of course, inflation is bad. I too go to the grocery store.
JON STEWART [on The Problem With Jon Stewart Podcast, on 11/02/22]: Yeah!
MORALES: You are running for the Senate now, but are there perhaps bigger aspirations someday, the White House?
PORTER: I think one of the things you have to do as a single mom is just solve the next problem that’s in your face. But I’ve always been the kind of person who looked for ways to make a difference.
MORALES: So, it sounds like you’re very open to the idea or the suggestion?
PORTER: Well, I’m not saying no, but I would think it is — I think it’s silly to say no. I think government service is important. I mean, keep in mind, I’m 49 and I’m considered young by congressional standards. I’m not young. I’ve had Botox twice, like I’m not young, but by Congress terms, I am and so I think it is important for new voices, voices that often haven’t been heard in our government, whether those are people of color or indigenous people, LGBTQ people, to look for those doors of opportunity and not be afraid to walk through them.
MORALES: Now, we also reached out to some of Porter’s main competition in the California Senate race so that we can sit down with them as well. Katie Porter has been called the Whiteboard Wizard. She loves the whiteboard, and as you saw, her kids are actually fans of having that whiteboard in their house. They say they can express themselves, and also, it’s a place where Congressmom often leaves them a list of chores, guys.
GAYLE KING: Wow, Natalie, that seems like a great afternoon to me that you spent. I can see men and women all around looking at this certainly in California saying, you go, Katie Porter.
DOKOUPIL: Yeah.
KING: There is so much about her that was so relatable to so many different things —
MORALES: Yeah.
KING: — in our lives and her lives [sic]. I’m so glad you brought that to us.
MORALES: She tells it like it is. Yeah, she does.
KING: She really does.
MORALES: She is pretty real.
DOKOUPIL: It’s a great piece. And I’ve been feeling her kids do those chores that she writes on the whiteboard.
VLADIMIR DUTHIERS: Yeah, for sure.
MORALES: They do.
DUTHIERS: While not spreading sand in that minivan.
KING: That’s right. I love that. Natalie, thanks a lot. That was a great piece. Thank you.
MORALES: Thank you. Appreciate it.
