California Governor Gavin Newsom (D) has filed a lawsuit against Fox News, alleging it deceptively edited a call he had with President Trump over the Los Angeles riots.
The $787 million defamation lawsuit, first reported by Politico, argues that Fox News host Jesse Watters spread false information about Newsom’s phone calls with Trump.
The conflict pertains to a comment made by President Trump, who said on June 10 that he called Newsom “a day ago.” Newsom denied the phone call. Watters then displayed images that Trump shared with Fox News’ John Roberts, which showed the phone call occurring on June 7.
“Newsom responded, and he said there wasn’t a phone call, said Trump never called him, not even a voice mail,” Watters said. “But John Roberts got Trump’s call logs, and it shows Trump called him late Friday night and they talked for 16 minutes. Why would Newsom lie and claim Trump never called him? Why would he do that?”
“If Fox News wants to lie to the American people on Donald Trump’s behalf, it should face consequences — just like it did in the Dominion case,” Newsom told Politico. “Until Fox is willing to be truthful, I will keep fighting against their propaganda machine.”
Fox News told the outlet that Newsom’s “transparent publicity stunt is frivolous and designed to chill free speech critical of him. We will defend this case vigorously and look forward to it being dismissed.”
Newsom indicated that he would drop the lawsuit if Fox News formally retracts the statement and Watters apologizes on air.
