'See you in court': Gavin Newsom to pursue $787M lawsuit against Fox News despite Jesse Watters' apology

WASHINGTON, DC: California Governor Gavin Newsom has decided to move ahead with his $787 million defamation lawsuit against Fox News despite an on-air apology from host Jesse Watters for falsely accusing him of lying.

In June, Newsom sued Fox News, alleging that Jesse Watters defamed him by calling him a liar about the timing of a phone call with President Donald Trump about the Los Angeles protests over ICE raids, and Trump’s deployment of troops to control the situation.

Gavin Newsom to move ahead with $787 million lawsuit against Fox News

On Jesse Watters' show on Thursday, July 17, the Fox News host attempted to clear things and acknowledged that Newsom "wasn’t lying" and "didn’t deceive anybody on purpose, so I’m sorry."

However, Watters also said the governor "was just confusing and unclear."

He said on Thursday, "We thought the dispute was about whether there had been a call at all — not when. We thought that the governor was clear when he said, without qualification, that there was no call."

The Fox News host added, "Now Newsom’s telling us what was in his head when he wrote the tweet. He didn’t deceive anybody on purpose, so I’m sorry. He wasn’t lying. He was just confusing and unclear. Next time, Governor, why don’t you just say what you mean?"

Furthermore, Watters also said that Newsom declined an invitation to be interviewed as a guest on the show.

However, Watters’ apology on the show did not convince Newsom. A spokesman for Newsom sent Variety a statement from the governor that read, "Discovery will be fun. See you in court, buddy."

The Fox News and Gavin Newsom controversy

The controversy between Fox News and Gavin Newsom revolves around a phone call between the California Governor and President Trump during the anti-immigration enforcement protests in Los Angeles last month.

On June 10, Trump claimed he had spoken to Newsom "a day ago" and told him, "You’ve got to do a better job, you’re doing a bad job."

Interestingly, this timing would have placed the call right before Trump ordered US Marines into LA, a move that outraged California leaders.

However, Newsom said that’s not how it happened and publicly stated that the call took place just after midnight on June 7, and that there was no discussion of military deployment.

Newsom also backed his claim and wrote on 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."

Meanwhile, Fox News ran the story and Watters aired a clip of Trump’s June 10 comments, but left out the part where Trump said the call happened "a day ago".

The segment ran with a bold headline that read, "Gavin lied about Trump’s call." Moreover, Watters also showed a screenshot of Trump's call log, but it didn’t include a timestamp, only the date, June 7.

Following this, Newsom’s legal team called it a blatant manipulation.

The defamation lawsuit stated that Watters "deceptively edited" the footage to support a false narrative that Newsom lied about when the call happened, and possibly about its contents.

Moreover, Newsom’s lawyers added that falsely linking him to the controversial troop deployment damaged his reputation and misled the public.