While Chasing Clicks On Media Tour, Katie Porter Accuses Riley Gaines Of ‘Chasing Clicks’
California Democrat Rep. Katie Porter is on a book tour.
Within roughly the past week, the West Coast left-wing darling has made appearances on “CBS Mornings,” “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert,” “CNN This Morning,” HBO’s “Real Time with Bill Maher,” and ABC’s “The View.” With her new book out to promote her California Senate run, Porter’s high-profile media tour is, by definition, chasing clicks. So it was odd Friday night on HBO when the California lawmaker accused former NCAA star swimmer Riley Gaines, who was just recently assaulted at a campus in Porter’s home state, of merely trying to “get clicks.”
Gaines was violently attacked by transgender activists at San Francisco State University earlier this month after she tried to give a campus lecture on women’s sports, sponsored by Turning Point USA. The former college swimmer was chased by a mob of demonstrators who screamed “trans rights are human rights” and called her a “transphobic b-tch.” Porter said Gaines was wrong to suggest athletic organizations should exclude males from female leagues.
[RELATED: San Francisco State Sides With Men Who Assaulted Women’s Rights Speaker Riley Gaines]
“I think that what she has done is try to turn this — we talked about people becoming — using things to kind of get likes and get clicks,” Porter said on Maher’s show. “Riley is speaking up for herself.”
Gaines responded to the accusation on Twitter.
“I’m not speaking up for myself…I’m done playing sports,” she wrote. “I’m actually supposed to be in dental school this year. But I’ve changed my life plans because I see what’s at stake if someone doesn’t fight for the present and next generation.”
“Why is it always women fighting against sex-based protections?” Gaines added in a follow-up post. “That will forever be beyond me.”
Porter went on ABC’s all-woman talk show program days later to cry about sexism in Congress and academia, while dodging details about her alleged poor treatment of her staff. Screenshots surfaced in December of text messages that show Porter berating a staffer who tested positive for Covid-19. While a compassionate employer might offer a sick colleague well wishes, Porter gave her a pink slip.
“Why did you not follow office protocol on testing?” Porter wrote to former Wounded Warrior Program Fellow Sasha Georgiades. “It’s really disappointing … I cannot allow you back in the office, given your failure to follow office policies.”
Georgiadas told Fox News the congresswoman cultivated a toxic work environment.
“She has made multiple staffers cry and people are generally so anxious to even staff her because if ANYTHING goes wrong she flips out on whatever staffer is present,” Georgiades said. “She just talks to staffers however she wants.”
When “The View’s” supposedly conservative co-host, Alyssa Farah Griffin, tossed Porter a softball question about the allegations of creating a toxic workplace, Porter cried sexism.
“I want to give you a chance to respond,” Griffin said, without detailing any of the accusations.
Porter likened her experience to that of a black woman.
“I think we see, and I saw this as a professor, certainly, female professors, particularly women of color, get much worse teaching evaluations,” Porter said. “Lots of the so-called ‘bad bosses’ are women and disproportionately people of color.”
In the same interview, the Senate candidate demanded Congress “police the Supreme Court.”
Meanwhile, the congresswoman currently seeking an even more demanding job in the upper chamber complained on Colbert’s late-night program last week about how hard it is to be a representative.
“The truth is, it’s like you’re hot, you’re late, you’re sweaty, you don’t know what’s going on, you’re flying back and forth, and I think we should be more honest with the American people about: Congress is a mess,” she said. “The truth is, it’s hard. It is hard to go to work every day with Marjorie Taylor Greene as a colleague.”
Greene, a two-term lawmaker from Georgia, also has to go to work with Porter every day.
Jesus Christ is King
Comments are closed.