Rep. Katie Porter says she regrets claiming California Senate primary was rigged after losing to Schiff

Rep. Katie Porter, D-Calif., said she regretted claiming California's Senate primary was rigged by an "onslaught of billionaires," after losing to fellow Democratic Rep. Adam Schiff, and said Tuesday she should have chosen different words. 

Porter made the claim on social media after losing to Schiff and said they had the establishment "running scared," adding "We had the establishment running scared, withstanding 3 to 1 in TV spending and an onslaught of billionaires spending millions to rig this election," she continued. 

Pod Save America host Jon Lovett asked Porter about the comments, referencing former President Trump, who frequently claims the 2020 election was rigged against him.

"So obviously, I wish I had chosen a different word because what happened with the controversy was it took away from two really important truths," Porter said, before praising California election officials. 

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"One, our California election officials do a terrific job. I have been through competitive, close elections where it has taken days to count, and so I have tremendous respect for them. So, want to make clear that at no time and in no way would I ever suggest that there’s anything than a careful, thoughtful, amazing election system that actually should be the model for a lot of the country, in my opinion," she said.

She argued that big money "influences our elections." 

"Outcomes are manipulated and distorted when you have people coming in spending millions and millions of dollars at the last minute, and that money is not disclosed until after the election, so people don’t know about it, they can’t take it into account when they vote," she said. 

The progressive Democrat did not win a single county, earning a statewide total of about 15 percent of the vote. She finished 16 points behind both Schiff and Republican candidate Steve Garvey, and she came in third place in Orange County, which she has represented since 2019. Schiff and Garvey, as the top two finishers in the jungle primary, will now face off in the general election.

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Porter herself has received millions of dollars from big donors to boost her campaign, despite touting her record of not accepting corporate PAC money. She has reportedly accepted thousands of dollars in donations from big Wall Street donors, according to federal campaign finance disclosures.

After her initial social media post claiming the primary was rigged, Porter doubled down. 

"'Rigged' means manipulated by dishonest means. A few billionaires spent $10 million on attack ads against me, including an ad rated ‘false’ by an independent fact-checker. That is dishonest means to manipulate an outcome," she said in a statement. 

She argued that defending democracy meant calling it out. 

"At no time have I ever undermined the vote count and election process in CA, which are beyond reproach," she continued.

Fox News' Bradford Betz contributed to this report.