(Ben Sellers, Headline USA) Former Rep. Katie Porter once again showed she was incapable of answering the most basic softball questions during last week’s California gubernatorial debate.
Porter, who is currently fending off intra-party attacks from hedge-fund billionaire Tom Steyer and Biden Cabinet Secretary Xavier Becerra, remains her own worst enemy in her bid for political relevancy.
In response to a question about whether English language proficiency should be required and strictly enforced for truck drivers, her “orange man bad” response said everything about her deranged mindset and leadership capability (or lack thereof).
“I would absolutely fight the Trump administration because the job of the California governor is to protect Californians and right now that includes protecting them from Donald Trump,” Porter responded, apropos of nothing.
Porter then appeared to make some minor overture to address the actual question — by admitting that she would support laws designed to maintain public safety.
“Protecting Californians also includes enforcing traffic laws,” she said. “And we’ve seen sometimes a need for oversight in California. For example, we have seen that the Department of Motor Vehicles was not enforcing rules around DUIs and drivers who had convictions for that.”
However, without addressing the actual issue of illegal immigrants being given driver’s licenses, she quickly pivoted back to a boilerplate response by attacking one of her Republican opponents, Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco, for alleged racial profiling.
“I am stunned that Mr. Bianco would say to black and brown Californians and immigrants who are being terrorized and racially profiled that you have to get over racism,” Porter ranted.
“It’s not something that you get over, it’s something that you fight,” she continued. “And if he doesn’t understand the importance of that, he has no business representing a state with the diversity of California.”
Among the high-profile incidents involving illegal immigrants who were given California driver’s licenses that subsequently resulted in traffic fatalities is the August 2025 case of Harjinder Singh, an undocumented Indian national who reportedly received licenses from both California and Washington state.
Singh allegedly made an illegal U-turn near Fort Pierce, Florida, that resulted in his truck jackknifing and blocking oncoming traffic lanes, killing three passengers in a minivan. Records indicated that he correctly answered only two of 12 questions on a federal safety assessment of English language proficiency, and he only correctly identified one of four highway traffic signs.
A separate incident involved another illegal from India, Jashanpreet Singh (no known relation to the first culprit). He was operating a semi-truck with a California commercial driver’s license during an October 2025 incident in which he failed to stop in slowed traffic, causing a fiery eight-car pileup that killed three people.
“This tragedy follows a disturbing pattern of criminal illegal aliens driving commercial vehicles on American roads, directly threatening public safety,” the Department of Homeland Security wrote in an X post showing footage of the deadly crash.
🚨 @ICEgov lodged an arrest detainer for Jashanpreet Singh, a criminal illegal alien from India, who took the lives of 3 individuals in a horrific DUI accident in San Bernadino County, California.
Singh first entered the U.S. in 2022 through the southern border and was RELEASED… pic.twitter.com/v5jtvwwuOo
— Homeland Security (@DHSgov) October 23, 2025
Porter offered an equally vacuous response when addressing the serious issue of homelessness in the Golden State.
She claimed — without evidence — in response to a point from Republican opponent Steve Hilton that “the majority of homeless people in California are actually working.”
Katie Porter womansplains how she doesn’t have a clue what is driving homelessness in California. pic.twitter.com/vsA84YTtFb
— Kevin Dalton (@TheKevinDalton) April 23, 2026
After Porter declared she would give current California Gov. Gavin Newsom a “B” for his efforts to address the homeless epidemic, Hilton replied, “I’d love to be in your class, Katie.”
Democrat Katie Porter told the debate moderator she’s a “notoriously tough grader” — then proceeded to give Gavin Newsom a ‘B’ on homelessness.
Republican Steve Hilton could not believe what he just heard and he ROASTED her on the spot.
MODERATOR: “What grade would you give… pic.twitter.com/OuMhA2Yv4b
— Overton (@overton_news) April 23, 2026
She also dodged a question about her storied reputation for being an abusive boss, claiming she had already “apologized” for viral videos that showed her berating staffers.
AWKWARD moment at California gubernatorial debate Wednesday where Katie Porter was asked what she’d tell her kids if they faced a boss like her who abused employees as she did in viral videos.
Porter: “I apologized that day to that staffer 4 years ago.” pic.twitter.com/BDW2OCAjGp
— Paul A. Szypula 🇺🇸 (@Bubblebathgirl) April 23, 2026
Despite the multitude of awkward responses, left-leaning outlets like Politico maintained that there was “no breakout moment” during the April 22 debate.
However, it was not the first time Porter has put her foot in her mouth. She famously stormed off a CBS News interview last year after reporter Julie Watts asked her about the need to reach across the aisle and court Trump voters.
Leading CA Democrat Katie Porter had a meltdown during a CBS Sacramento interview with Julie Watts who recently sat down with each California gubernatorial candidate to ask questions on a variety of issues. pic.twitter.com/hf7CuPjV1U pic.twitter.com/aGsnFsIy50
— T🇺🇸B (@Shine_on_2012) October 8, 2025
As many Democrats did with former Rep. Eric Swalwell following the public revelations of an explosive sex scandal that had long been an open secret among his colleagues, some in her own party are now calling for Porter to drop out of the gubernatorial race.
But it may be to the advantage of Republicans to urge her to remain in it.
With the Democrat vote split several different ways in the state’s “jungle primary,” recent polls have shown Hilton and Bianco as the two frontrunners who would advance to the general-election ballot.
However, Steyer, who has managed to unite both elite Democrat billionaires and anti-billionaire socialists on the left wing, is likely to be the frontrunner if he were to face either Hilton or Bianco in a two-way race.
Becerra, who oversaw the Biden administration’s failed response to the COVID pandemic as President Joe Biden’s secretary of Health and Human Services, previously served alongside Newsom as California’s attorney general.
Ben Sellers is a freelance writer and former editor of Headline USA. Follow him at x.com/realbensellers.
