Xavier Becerra faces pushback from Biden-era colleagues as he rises in California
In the race for California governor, Xavier Becerra has quickly risen in the polls, capitalizing on a message centered on his extensive experience in government, including as U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services, state attorney general and member of Congress.
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“I’m going to make sure that as governor I address these crises because I’ve been through these crises before and I’ve had to deal with them,” Becerra said during a gubernatorial debate last month. “We need someone who has experience, someone who doesn’t need on-the-job training. »
But that argument sparked a wave of criticism from Becerra’s Biden administration alumni, including some who worked closely with him, over his leadership of HHS and how he handled several crises during his tenure.
The line of attack represents a major test for Becerra, who has surged to the top of polls in the home stretch of California’s turbulent gubernatorial race as he seeks to prove to voters that he is best suited to run the nation’s most populous state.
“In moments of real challenge, that’s kind of when you ask yourself: Are you able to step up? He didn’t have the understanding of the agency or the role that I think you want in an executive,” said a former White House official under then-President Joe Biden who worked closely on issues involving the Department of Health and Human Services.
“HHS is one of the most difficult bureaucracies because it’s so huge, and it has all these independent agencies, that you have to make sure that an executive-type person is in charge and is able to manage this,” continued the former official, who was granted anonymity to speak candidly. “And he didn’t have the skills to do that.”
Becerra has faced a number of challenges as Secretary of Health and Human Services, including handling the Covid pandemic. HHS was also the lead agency tasked with addressing the influx of unaccompanied migrant children at the U.S.-Mexico border, a pandemic-created shortage of infant formula, and a 2022 mpox virus outbreak.
On the issue of Covid, the former administration official said Becerra should have done more to help coordinate a clearer messaging strategy in issuing often conflicting public health guidelines on issues such as social distancing.
“There have been debates and disagreements between all the government scientists and public health officials about how best to move things forward, and he really hasn’t been able to handle that,” the person said. “He just wasn’t up for it.”
The official added that Becerra, along with others in the administration, are “sleeping at the wheel” when it comes to the baby formula shortage.
Another former Biden administration official said Becerra failed to adequately take charge of efforts to manage migrants arriving in droves at the border.
“You just saw this huge influx of unaccompanied children overflowing” into Customs and Border Protection facilities, “because HHS wasn’t really able to do what it needed to do to hold up its end of the formula,” this person said.
This person said Becerra’s management of HHS — a sprawling agency that at the time had about 80,000 employees — was particularly relevant to his gubernatorial campaign, given that he would oversee an even larger government bureaucracy if elected. California currently has approximately 250,000 public employees.
“California is a huge state with very complex bureaucracies, very complex and large agencies that all fall under the jurisdiction of the governor,” the person said. “His experience leading such complex entities, his record in this area is not great.”
“I’m not sure his experience there set the stage for him to become governor of one of the world’s largest economies — I just think it’s not his skill set,” the person added.
Last week, Xochitl Hinojosa, who led the Justice Department’s public affairs office for two years during the Biden administration, also sharply criticized Becerra on CNN.
“He was not effective in government, and I think a lot of people in the Biden administration are talking about that because they realize he was not an effective HHS secretary,” she said. “And if you ask any Cabinet secretary, they’ll tell you the same thing.”
Becerra campaign spokesperson Jonathan Underland and campaign adviser Michael Bustamante hit back at attacks from unnamed and named members of the Biden administration, while providing NBC News with a series of other former colleagues who praised Becerra.
In one such statement, former Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm said, “When it came to the greatest challenges of our time – a global pandemic, expanding coverage, reducing costs – he led with courage and expertise. »
In another article, former Labor Secretary Julie Su praised Becerra as a “tireless champion for workers and families, and I have witnessed it firsthand.”
And Neera Tanden, Biden’s senior White House adviser, hit back directly at Hinojosa’s criticism, writing on »
“He kept his promises on Medicare drugs, got $35 worth of insulin, and got health care coverage for 14 million more people. We appreciated that he accomplished great things,” she added.
Granholm and Su have officially endorsed Becerra, while Tanden has offered support but has not issued an official endorsement for the race.
Some of the criticism of Becerra came during his time in the top job at HHS. NBC News also reported in December 2021 that Becerra had kept a low public profile in the fight against the pandemic.
More recently, some of Becerra’s former colleagues in the Biden White House have declined to support his campaign. Former Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said in an interview with Politico that he is “agnostic on the California gubernatorial race right now.” This came just days after former Vice President Kamala Harris released a list of endorsements in up-and-down races in her home state of California, but not in the governor’s race.
Criticism of Becerra has intensified as he has quickly advanced in the California gubernatorial race following the abrupt departure of former Rep. Eric Swalwell last month. With the June 2 multiparty primary just weeks away and with mail-in ballots already sent out, Becerra now sits atop all recent polls, alongside fellow Democrat Tom Steyer and Republicans Steve Hilton and Chad Bianco, although the contest still lacks a clear favorite. The top two vote-getters will advance to a general election, regardless of party.
During the final debate before the primary Thursday, San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan, another Democratic candidate in the race, lambasted Becerra for failing to handle the pandemic well.
“He wasn’t running the store, the Biden administration had to sideline him over Covid — that’s not the leadership you need,” he said.
“That’s what happens when you lead in the polls,” Becerra responded at another point, amid a series of additional attacks. “They’re all coming to you.”
Becerra’s campaign has also been the subject of several other controversies since she rose to the front of the pack.
A California political consultant to Becerra, who also served as Gov. Gavin Newsom’s chief of staff, pleaded guilty Thursday to a conspiracy to steal campaign funds from an inactive Becerra campaign account. Becerra’s chief of staff at HHS also pleaded guilty in December to stealing campaign funds from that Becerra account.
Becerra said he was unaware of the thefts, and in a statement released Thursday, he reiterated that he was not involved.
“As I said from day one, I was not involved, I did nothing wrong. And now the record bears it out. We can close the book on this,” he said.
The scandal has been the subject of offensive ads released by the Steyer campaign in recent weeks, and during Thursday night’s debate, Becerra drew criticism from several of his opponents on the issue.
Former Democratic Rep. Katie Porter suggested Becerra could still face charges, saying the latest plea “does not preclude an indictment from being issued against you.”
And this week, Becerra faced blowback over how he handled an interview with Los Angeles television station KTLA.
In a clip that circulated on social media, Becerra asked the reporter, “By the way, this is a profile article, it’s not a ‘trap’ article, right?”
“The way I describe my profile is: You talk about everything I’ve done, the things I want to do, plus some tough questions. But not just the tough questions,” he said.
Steyer discussed the interview at a recent campaign event and posted the clip on X.
“You ask me a difficult question, if it hurts, I will answer it. And that’s the thing that Xavier Becerra didn’t want to do,” he said. “You can’t avoid the tough questions.”
Underland, the Becerra campaign spokesman, told NBC News that “the measure of a good governor is whether he can roll with the punches, get back up and keep swinging.”
