California gubernatorial candidate Katie Porter, a Democrat, got fact-checked on May 11, 2026, after she lobbed accusations at her rival, Tom Steyer, of leaking a damaging video and issued a warning that Xavier Becerra could be a threat to Democrats in the primary. Porter made her comments during an interview on CNN’s “Inside Politics” hosted by Dana Bash.
During the interview, Porter told Bash, “Well, given that Tom Steyer is the person who leaked the video with me and the staffer from five years ago, he pretty clearly wanted to be governor bad enough to knock me down to do it.” Bash later closed out the interview by making it clear that CNN had not verified Porter’s claims about Steyer.
“I should note that we don’t have evidence that Steyer leaked that video of you,” Bash stated. “If you have it, please bring it.” Porter has alleged that Steyer’s campaign is responsible for the leak of a video from several years ago that shows her yelling at a staff member, claiming she had been told the footage came from the Department of Energy.
According to a report from Fox News, Sepi Esfahlani, a spokesperson for the Steyer campaign, said the accusations were untrue and told the outlet that Porter is simply trying to shift the attention away from her own scandals and controversies. “Tom has nothing to do with that video,” Esfahlani went on to say. “This is an attempt from Katie Porter to deflect from her past mistakes.”
“Katie Porter only has one person to blame for her standing in the race, and it’s herself,” Esfahlani added. During the interview with Bash, Porter also took an opportunity to slam Becerra, who formerly served as the U.S. Health and Human Services secretary and California attorney general, concerning an unresolved corruption investigation into his former campaign account.
“The simple fact is Secretary Becerra cannot promise Californians that he will not be named as a co-conspirator in this corruption charge,” Porter told Bash. The CNN anchor then pressed Porter on Becerra’s denial of the accusations against him, pointing out that he has stated “multiple times” that he did nothing wrong. “Are you saying that you don’t believe that that’s true?” Bash asked the Democratic candidate.
Porter replied by saying the issue is too uncertain for voters to ignore. “I do not have the facts here, but the people who are currently negotiating plea deals in Sacramento do,” she explained. “And if they implicate him, I have zero doubt that he will be indicted.” She added, “If he is, and the top two include him and Steve Hilton, we would wind up with a Republican governor.”
A spokesperson representing Becerra told Fox that Porter’s claims were untrue and stated that federal investigators already looked into the matter. “Katie Porter is grasping at straws,” the spokesperson stated. “The FBI looked into this and found no wrongdoing by Xavier Becerra.” Bash offered Porter a chance to respond to the statement. “You said some pretty tough stuff about Xavier Becerra,” Bash went on to say. “If he wants to come back on the show, he is more than welcome to do that as well.”
