Former California congressman and Biden-era Secretary of Health and Human Services Xavier Becerra has seen his polling numbers improve in recent weeks as he vies to become the next governor of the Golden State. His debate performances have been tepid and listless at best, but Democrats are desperately trying to rally around one candidate in an uninspiring, crowded field to make sure that Republicans Steve Hilton and Chad Bianco don't finish in the top two in the June 2 primary.
Because if that (mercifully) happens, we are assured of a GOP governor for the first time since 2011.
Becerra isn’t doing himself any favors, however, with his disastrous interview posted by KTLA on Thursday. To say he’s touchy is an understatement. Before reporter Annie Rose Ramos can even ask a question, he snaps, “By the way, this is a profile piece, this is not a gotcha piece, right?”
Who starts an interview like that? He then proceeds to tell her how he thinks she should do her work. Unbelievable.
RedState Managing Editor Jennifer Van Laar noticed:
Wow.... the STATION posted this. And good for them. There's a microexpression on his face a few seconds before the end of this clip where you can see his anger briefly, which he quickly replaces with a smile.
— Jennifer Van Laar (@jenvanlaar) May 12, 2026
Trying to come across as jovial, kind Becerra... but that ain't who he… https://t.co/tc7BestL3c
Van Laar's tweet continues:
Wow.... the STATION posted this. And good for them. There's a microexpression on his face a few seconds before the end of this clip where you can see his anger briefly, which he quickly replaces with a smile.
Trying to come across as jovial, kind Becerra... but that ain't who he is.
Democrat strategist Michael Trujillo had some advice for Becerra: pay attention to what year it is. “A man telling a younger woman how to do her job, this just posted on KTLA Los Angeles,” he wrote. “Dude it’s 2026.”
MORE: CA Gubernatorial Debate Night Scorecard: Who Killed It, Who Bombed
Xavier Becerra: Biden Admin's Invisible Man Now Leads CA Dems in Governor Race
Things didn’t go much better for Becerra as his response to questions about missing children during his HHS days was just plain… awful. It’s emblematic of the type of people Ole Joe surrounded himself with, and reminds us once again how miraculous it is to have a real president in office nowadays.
Regarding a scathing 2024 report by The New York Times that revealed that over 85,000 children of illegal aliens went unaccounted for during the Biden years, and many ended up being exploited, Becerra sounded so disinterested about their fate that you couldn’t help but wonder if he had a pulse.
Watch:
KTLA just ended Xavier Becerra pic.twitter.com/oMuWmbdm8n
— Kevin Dalton (@TheKevinDalton) May 12, 2026
Here's the back and forth:
Ramos: During your time as HHS Secretary, a New York Times investigation found the health department couldn’t find some 85,000 children it had released.
Becerra: That’s not accurate. What you just read is not accurate. First, that’s what I’ll say, because it was never the case that we could not find kids. You’re essentially, I don’t know if you got those talking points, from Donald Trump.
Ramos: It’s from a New York Times article.
Becerra: That’s not what the New York Times article said, The New York Times said that individuals, the children and their sponsors, did not respond to calls. They didn’t say we couldn’t find kids
Ramos: Working overnight in slaughterhouses, replacing roofs, operating machineries and factories children as young as 14 years old.
Becerra: That part occurred after these children had left the care of Department of Health and Human Services.
Ramos: Do you let these children go into those individual sponsors in their responsibilities?
Becerra: Some of these kids, probably because they needed to earn some money, started working in places that were very exploitive.
His whole attitude seems to be, “Hand me the soap, because I’m washing my hands of this.” The problem? The Times report details how Becerra was asleep at the wheel:
H.H.S., the federal agency responsible for sheltering migrant children when they arrive by themselves, repeatedly handed them over to adult sponsors in the United States without thorough vetting and sometimes failed to conduct timely safety checks on children once they were released, said the report by the department’s inspector general.
“I would define these gaps as very serious,” said Haley Lubeck, the project leader for the review. “We know that these children are especially vulnerable to exploitation.”
Becerra sat for the interview at his old Highland Park (Los Angeles) stomping grounds, presumably to make him seem more “real,” but he’s lived in Sacramento or D.C. for decades now. Meanwhile, he and fellow Democrat candidate Anthony Villaraigosa have taken to seeing who can outdo each other with the thickest accent on the debate stage, but it just comes across as pandering.
As of Tuesday, the RealClearPolitics Poll Average shows that Becerra still has plenty of catching up to do and is significantly behind even his nearest Democrat opponent, the violence-inciting billionaire Tom Steyer:
Hilton (R) 18.5% (+2.5)
Steyer (D) 16.0%
Bianco (R) 13.0%
Becerra (D) 10.0%
Porter (D) 9.0%
Mahan (D) 6.0%
Becerra was known by some of his detractors as “Mr. Invisible” during his days as HHS Secretary and before that, California attorney general. I bet he’s wishing he was invisible today, because the interview has gone viral — and not in a good way.
Whatever chance he might have had at winning the big job, this performance may have just ended it.
Editor’s Note: California is the poster child for everything that is wrong with the Democrat Party and the “progressive” movement.
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