Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-CA) filed a lawsuit against Fox News, alleging the network defamed him by misconstruing a phone call he held with President Donald Trump.
“No more lies. I’m suing Fox News for $787 million,” the governor announced as he demanded a formal retraction and an on-air apology from Fox News host Jesse Watters, whom Newsom said lied about the governor’s call with the president during a news segment.
“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 said in a statement to the Washington Examiner. “I believe the American people should be able to trust the information they receive from a major news outlet. Until Fox is willing to be truthful, I will keep fighting against their propaganda machine.”
Newsom said Fox News deliberately misrepresented the timing of the call to paint the president in a more favorable light and suggest that the California Democrat lied when he said “there was no phone call,” according to the lawsuit, which was first reported by Politico.
The phone call was held between the two politicians on June 7 as they publicly feuded over Trump’s decision to send in military troops into Los Angeles to quell anti-ICE riots in the area over Newsom’s loud protests.
When Trump was later pressed on June 10 about whether he had personally contacted the governor over the matter, the president said he called Newsom “a day ago.”
Newsom swiftly denied there had been a call, stating: “There was no call. Not even a voicemail. Americans should be alarmed that a President deploying Marines onto our streets doesn’t even know who he’s talking to.”
Newsom’s lawsuit alleges that in its reporting, Fox News left out the timing element of the president’s comments on the phone call to suggest the governor lied when he said there had been no contact.
In its reporting on the matter, Fox News’s headline said that “Trump brings receipts he called Newsom amid LA riots as California gov claims there wasn’t ‘even a voicemail.’”
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The network included statements from Newsom in its coverage that noted Trump’s call “is from 3 days ago,” rather than one day claimed, and that the governor’s “comment is clearly in regards to the President’s comment this morning of ‘a day ago.’”
The Washington Examiner reached out to Fox News and Newsom’s office for comment.