Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra is reportedly thinking of leaving the White House. Earlier this week, POLITICO covered how Becerra is weighing the option for after the November election, this way he can run for governor back in California. Becerra previously served as the Attorney General of California and as a member of Congress for California's 30th, 31st, and 34th Congressional Districts, and he has said, "I miss California."
As the report mentioned:
Becerra and supporters have had conversations over the past weeks where the secretary and former California attorney general indicated to fellow Democratic officials and operatives that he would leave Washington after the November election and join the crowded field to succeed Gov. Gavin Newsom in two years.
The people were granted anonymity to describe private conversations, which they characterized as more serious in recent weeks.
Becerra has parked nearly $1.55 million that’s usable in the governor’s race in a committee for Superintendent of Public Instruction in 2030.
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When asked by POLITICO after the event if he planned to run, Becerra sidestepped the question.
“It’s a blessing to hear that someone is saying that I’m running for governor because I don’t know who they are,” Becerra said. “I am secretary of HHS and, by law, I have to be secretary of HHS and nothing else. So I’m gonna do my job as best I can. It’s a thrill, I think my mom would be happy to hear that someone thinks I can run for governor as well,” he said.
When pressed, Becerra said he wasn’t making calls to supporters and then an aide abruptly cut off the questioning.
The report describes Becerra as someone who is "largely viewed as genial and a willing team player in selling the president’s agenda, spending much of his tenure outside of Washington promoting a range of health policies." There was also considerable focus on Becerra being Latino. "Becerra’s impending departure also could represent a blow to the president as Democrats struggle to court Latino voters across the West and other key states. Becerra is the first Latino to lead HHS," the report mentioned.
Back in March 2021, however, when he was nominated and just before he was very narrowly confirmed for the position, we highlighted how he was the most partisan member of the cabinet, not exactly qualified for this particular position, and anything but "genial" with his opponents.
It's not just his opponents, though, who the secretary isn't too friendly with. In covering how Becerra is thinking of leaving, Jennifer Oliver O'Connell at our sister site of RedState brought up an Axios report from February detailing "How Biden botched the border." Becerra wasn't looked upon too favorably, according to that exclusive:
Infighting broke out among those on Biden's team.
- Domestic Policy Advisor Susan Rice emerged as a central — and controversial — coordinator of the administration's approach to the border.
- Some officials found her needlessly combative and disagreed with her policy-wise. But even many of her critics credit her with taking on more responsibility on the border at a time when most other top Biden officials were shying away from it.
- There was — and still is — deep animosity toward Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra for what was seen as his reluctance to find more space in child migrant shelters, which are overseen by HHS, according to several sources familiar with the dynamics.
- Rice referred to Becerra as a "bitch-ass" and privately called him an "idiot," according to multiple sources.
- During one meeting when Biden was tearing into Becerra, Rice passed Mayorkas a note that read: "Don't save him," according to two people familiar with the meeting.
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- Rice declined interview requests. A spokesperson said she "categorically denies" the reporting about her relationship with Becerra and Harris.
If it seems that not enough bad things can be said about Becerra's time as HHS secretary and attorney general back in California. He was one of the co-chairs of Catholics for Biden in 2020, yet, despite the Catholic Church's abundantly clear stance against abortion, is viciously pro-abortion, using his authority of whatever position he's had to go after pro-lifers and other critics.
Previous Townhall coverage has not only highlighted how ruthless Becerra was as attorney general, but how he continued to be as HHS secretary as well. Perhaps most alarming is how early on he, at best, expressed woeful ignorance of federal law when he appeared before the House Energy and Commerce Committee. He had been asked several times about the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act, signed into law in 2003 and upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court in 2007. Becerra was actually in Congress at the time then-President George W. Bush signed it into law. He voted against it.
There are plenty more examples from the RedState report as well, as O'Connell holds nothing back:
...As HHS Secretary, Becerra has overseen the most draconian and vindictive of Biden's policies, including lawsuits against states that have banned puberty blockers and transgender surgeries for minors and pushed government agents going door-to-door to administer the COVID vaccine.
It was no joke then, and it especially is no joke now, in light of all we know about what was done by the Biden administration to restrict proven medical interventions, squelch scientists, medical professionals, and others who were speaking the truth about the COVID response, and the harms from the vaccine. In October 2021, Becerra went on a rant during MSNBC's “Andrea Mitchell Reports” about the "selfish" unvaccinated.
Lest we forget, Becerra also helped institute cuts to the Medicare Advantage program. California seniors, like seniors across the rest of the nation, are none too pleased and have suffered as a result. Just like in California, Becerra's most prominent role has been as a convenient attack dog. HHS has sued religious hospitals and organizations that would not allow their doctors to prescribe the abortion pill and who would not co-sign transgender surgeries on minors.
That brings us to another way in which the also supposedly Catholic President Joe Biden, Becerra, and the entire administration are at odds with the Catholic faith when it comes to support for procedures--which involve puberty blockers, sterilization, and genital mutilation--for children who may think they're transgender. Pope Francis has blasted gender theory, and also just recently called it out as the threat to human dignity that it is in an official document from the Vatican.
Further, Becerra was one of the members of the Biden administration who has been found to be in violation of the Hatch Act last April after the Office of the Special Counsel "concluded that Secretary Becerra violated the Hatch Act by expressing support for Senator Alex Padilla's reelection while speaking in his official capacity at the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute Annual Awards Gala on September 15, 2022."
It all really begs the question of who actually considers this secretary to be "genial" then.
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