Representative Katie Porter is under fire for angrily denouncing Irvine’s police force as a “disgrace” and declaring she would “never trust them again.”
In a series of texts Porter sent to Irvine Mayor Farrah Kahn in July of 2021, in the wake of an altercation at at Porter-organized town hall between a disruptive group of Trump supporters and supporters of the congresswoman.
“I will never trust them again,” Porter texted Kahn. “Well, your police force is a disgrace.”
Both Porter and Kahn are Democrats.
A group led by fringe activist Nick Taurus disrupted the Porter town hall. Tensions escalated and led to physical altercations.
A man named Julian Mills, who lived with Porter according to arrest and property records, was arrested at the scene by the Irvine police officers.
A Porter spokesperson minimized Porter’s denunciation of Irvine police officers, saying she believed the Irvine police officers stationed at the town hall did not intervene quickly enough, and the two-term congresswoman was expressing her “frustration” to Mayor Khan.
Porter is locked in a heated re-election battle against Scott Baugh, a former GOP leader in the Assembly and former chairman of the Republican Party of Orange County. Baugh has been tirelessly attacking Porter’s progressive voting record as out-of-step with the voters in the Republican-leaning 47th Congressional District.
“It’s irresponsible and inappropriate for Katie Porter to call the police department presiding over the safest city in America for 15 consecutive years a disgrace,” said Scott Baugh, her opponent for California’s 47th Congressional District. “Only a progressive, defund the police advocate would call the Irvine Police Department a disgrace. Katie Porter’s true colors are shining through.”
Baugh was recently endorsed by the Orange County Register, saying “we certainly agree with his vision of a limited federal government” while criticizing Porter for having “championed an overreaching federal government.”
The leaked text of Porter denigrating Irvine police officers is the latest in a series of political landmines that have blown up under her re-election effort.
Earlier this month, Porter drew accusations of hypocrisy for decrying the lack of affordable housing while taking advantage of a sweetheart housing deal intended for active UC Irvine professors. Porter, who was a UCI law professor at the time, in 2011 purchased her 4-bedroom, 3-bathroom house in an upscale Irvine neighborhood for below market through a university housing program for faculty. She pays a land-lease fee and homeowner association dues, which combined come to a couple hundred dollars a month.
The housing program is intended for faculty members who are actually teaching at UCI. Porter hasn’t taught at the university since her election to Congress in 2018, but still lives in the house.
