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Gavin Newsom is SUING FOX NEWS for $787 Million for Lying About a Phone Call with Trump [1]

['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.']

Date: 2025-06-27

For the past ten years Donald Trump has cemented his reputation as being the most litigious president in American history. He has filed numerous lawsuits, especially against the media that he maligns in Stalinist terms as "the enemy of the people." It is a brazen assault on the Constitution's First Amendment guarantee of a free press.

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In virtually every case that Trump has brought, the analysis of legal experts has been nearly universal that the suits had no merit. They were driven by Trump's craving for vengeance against journalists who dared to tell the truth about him. Just as he and his minions are doing now with regard to his adventurism in Iran.

Unfortunately, due to unrelated business concerns, and sometimes just plain cowardice, the corporate parents of some of the news networks have sought to settle with Trump.

SEE THIS: TRUMP WINS? ABC News Settles His Lawsuit Confirming that He Was Found Liable for Sexual Abuse

In a deliberately ironic twist. California Governor Gavin Newsom is now suing Fox News for $787 million alleging defamation by primetime host - and the stupidest man on Fox News - Jesse Watters. The amount sought in the lawsuit is the same amount that Fox News agreed to settle for in a case where they were sued for defamation by Dominion Voting Systems. As reported by Variety...

"California Gov. Gavin Newsom has sued Fox News for defamation, demanding $787 million in monetary damages.



"The governor alleged that Fox News host Jesse Watters used an edited clip of President Trump’s remarks about Newsom to falsely claim that Newsom had lied about Trump not calling him about deploying National Guard troops to quell L.A. protests."

Newsom's case revolves around Trump's assertion that he called Newsom on June 9. Trump said that he told Newsom that he was "doing a bad job" handling protests against ICE, and that "Los Angeles would be burning" if he had not deployed the National Guard. None of which was true. Newsom denied in a tweet that there was any such call and later added that last time they had spoken was on June 7.

x 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. https://t.co/y7TJUhUZGI — Gavin Newsom (@GavinNewsom) June 10, 2025

Subsequently, Watters played an edited clip of Trump’s claims and asked, “Why would Newsom lie and claim Trump never called him?” The show also displayed a chyron that said “Gavin Lied About Trump’s Call.” However, the record is clear that Newsom did not lie about the call. It was even confirmed in Watters' segment where he displayed a screenshot of Trump’s call history, obtained by Fox News, showing his last call with Newsom was on June 7, just as the Governor had stated.

Newsom's lawyers noted that they had sent a letter to Fox News informing them of the lawsuit and demanding a retraction and an on-air apology from Watters. They said that they would be willing to drop the suit if Fox News and Watters complied. Don't hold your breath. Newsom also said in a statement 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. Until Fox is willing to be truthful, I will keep fighting against their propaganda machine."

That's precisely how Fox News should be dealt with when they engage in blatantly dishonest "reporting." The problem with that, however, is that if everyone did so, there would be hundreds of lawsuits against Fox News for virtually everything that they put on the air.

A better solution might be to fire Watters, just like they did Tucker Carlson when he was implicated in the Dominion case. Although that could also trigger the need to fire a couple of dozen other Fox News hosts and contributors. As is often said about the right-wing network, if Fox News didn't lie, they would have dead air 24/7.

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[1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2025/6/27/2330443/-Gavin-Newsom-is-SUING-FOX-NEWS-for-787-Million-for-Lying-About-a-Phone-Call-with-Trump?pm_campaign=front_page&pm_source=more_community&pm_medium=web

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