Coverage spread: 2 sources — 1 center · 1 right
Lean ratings via AllSides / Media Bias-Fact-Check. How this works.
What Happened
Ruby Rippey, whose 2007 affair with then-San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom triggered a major political scandal, has published a first-person essay in Vanity Fair recounting the relationship in detailed, step-by-step fashion. At the time, Rippey was married to Alex Tourk, who served as Newsom’s campaign manager, and she herself worked as the mayor’s appointments secretary. Her essay describes the origins of the affair at City Hall, encounters that included time in a hot tub, nights spent together in hotel rooms, and visits to Newsom’s Russian Hill penthouse. She recalls being driven in a chauffeured town car to The Carneros Inn and describes an intimate moment in the vehicle, as well as waking up beside Newsom the following morning. Rippey frames the affair as intertwined with her struggles with alcoholism, writing that the relationship was less about romance than about proximity to power and a sense of being noticed.
A central new disclosure in the piece is Rippey’s account of advice she says she received from Kamala Harris, who was serving as San Francisco’s district attorney when the scandal broke in early 2007. According to Rippey, Harris privately urged her to hold off on speaking publicly or pursuing a book deal, telling her to “pause” because more time would offer better perspective. Rippey also uses the essay to dispute how Newsom later described the episode in his own memoir, saying the book portrays him as the one who confessed the affair to her husband, when in fact she says she had already told Tourk herself. She recounts asking a Newsom advisor whether the governor’s book was truthful and being told that people “remember things differently.”
How the Coverage Compares
Fox News is the primary source providing substantive detail on the story, framing its coverage around Rippey’s Vanity Fair essay and emphasizing two angles: the salacious, blow-by-blow nature of her recollections of the affair, and the political intrigue of Harris’s behind-the-scenes counsel to stay silent. Fox’s write-up also connects the essay to broader, related coverage the outlet has been pursuing, including a Department of Justice inquiry involving Newsom and his wife discussed by a California Post opinion editor on a Fox News program, and a separate Fox report alleging that a Newsom-affiliated political action committee purchased large quantities of his memoir to boost its sales figures. This positions the Vanity Fair essay within a wider pattern of Fox coverage scrutinizing Newsom’s public image and the accuracy of his own retelling of his political and personal history.
The Hill also flagged the story with a headline referencing the Newsom-Rippey affair and Harris’s involvement, indicating the outlet recognized it as newsworthy, but no article text was available for this synthesis, so it is not possible to compare The Hill’s specific framing, emphasis, or any additional details it may have reported. Based on available information, Fox News stands as the outlet actually supplying the narrative specifics — the quotes, scene-setting details, and the dispute over the memoir’s accuracy — while The Hill’s contribution to this particular compilation is limited to signaling that it covered the same underlying story.
Why It Matters
The 2007 affair was a defining early scandal in Newsom’s political career, contributing to the breakdown of his first marriage-adjacent personal circle and prompting a public apology at a City Hall press conference in February of that year. Its resurfacing now, nearly two decades later, carries renewed significance given Newsom’s current stature as California’s governor and frequent mention as a potential future presidential contender, as well as Harris’s own path from San Francisco prosecutor to vice president and her continued positioning as a possible 2028 Democratic presidential frontrunner. Rippey’s account, by directly quoting Harris’s private advice to “pause” rather than speak out, adds a new dimension to the historical record of how Harris handled a politically sensitive situation involving a fellow Bay Area Democratic official years before either rose to national prominence.
The essay’s challenge to Newsom’s own memoir — specifically the claim that he took credit for confessing the affair rather than Rippey — also feeds into separate scrutiny of how Newsom has portrayed his personal narrative in his book, including Fox’s related reporting on bulk memoir purchases by a supportive PAC. Taken together, the story blends a personal and long-settled scandal with fresh questions about political memory, image management, and the credibility of self-authored political narratives, at a moment when both Newsom and Harris remain closely watched as potential national candidates.
Sources
Featured photo: Charles Ommanney – Office of the Governor of California via Wikimedia Commons (Public domain)