latest poll before the showdown<\/a> on the stage in Burbank showed Becerra with the largest lead of this election cycle with 60% support, followed by Hilton at 38%. In the days leading up to tonight\u2019s standoff, the poll showed that the state\u2019s unaffiliated voters continued to shift towards Becerra, a former California congressman and state attorney general who was Health and Human Services secretary in the Biden Administration.<\/p>\nBecerra touted his California and Washington D.C. experience and repeatedly linked Hilton to the \u201ctyrant\u201d President Donald Trump, who endorsed the former Fox News commentator.<\/p>\n
Hilton countered by tying Becerra to what Hilton called the failed policies of Gov. Gavin Newsom and Democratic super majorities in Sacramento.<\/p>\n
Becerra, as he had in the primary race, avoided any criticism of the governor, and Hilton, as he also had done in the primary, avoided questions about Trump, whose endorsement he secured early in the campaign.<\/p>\n
The candidates were testy but stuck to their scripts, despite the efforts by moderators Jake Tapper and Dana Bash to pin them down on the issues.<\/p>\n
Hilton began the debate by thanking CNN \u201cfor bringing Xavier out of hiding.\u201d<\/p>\n
Becerra began by accusing Hilton of endorsing a 40% tax cut for California \u201cmillionaires and billionaires.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe need to bring jobs back to California, because your policies of high taxes have driven businesses out of the state,\u201d countered Hilton.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou are proposing Trump tax policies and promoting Trump tax cuts,\u201d counterpunched Becerra,\u201d and you\u2019re going to end up with Trump results.\u201d<\/p>\n
Tapper and Bash asked about the candidates\u2019 positions on housing, AI, data centers, immigration, climate change, homelessness, disaster relief, voting rights, immunization, health care and Hollywood.<\/p>\n
Often the candidates preferred talking about their opponents\u2019 positions, rather than their own.<\/p>\n
Often it sounded as though the real opponents in this California election were Newsom and Trump \u2013 Becerra talked about Hilton\u2019s links to the president, and Hilton talked about Becerra\u2019s links to the governor.<\/p>\n
On the climate, for example, Hilton complained about\u00a0 \u201cineffective and costly climate policies\u201d and suggested that Democrats were responsible for high gasoline prices in California.<\/p>\n
Becerra said Hilton wants to \u201cdrill, baby, drill\u201d along the coast of California, and blamed high gasoline prices on \u201cTrump\u2019s policies and the Iran War.\u201d<\/p>\n
There were occasional promises.<\/p>\n
Hilton said he would cut $150,000 from the cost of each new home, and build 10 new cities \u201cto help young people follow their dreams.\u201d Becerra said he would \u201cclose the housing gap and double the rate of building\u201d new housing.<\/p>\n
Hilton cautiously endorsed Trump\u2019s hands-off approach to AI companies. \u201cWe\u2019ll have to see if these companies will make good\u201d on their promises to self-regulate,\u201d he said. \u201cI will hold them to that.\u201d
He added: \u201cOur finances are dependent on these companies,\u201d and California needs \u201cto make sure we get all those new [AI] jobs here in California.\u201d<\/p>\n
Becerra warned of the possible lost jobs from unregulated AI growth and said Hilton was relying on Trump: \u201cThe president got a pinky promise\u201d from the AI CEOs this week, he said.<\/p>\n
When asked if they would endorse multiple new California laws attempting to block aggressive ICE immigration enforcement, Hilton said he would protect \u201clegal immigrants,\u201d then accused Becerra, as HHS secretary, of sending thousands of children \u201cinto camps\u2026into the clutches of sex traffickers.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI cannot believe that you haven\u2019t apologized, that you haven\u2019t any sense of shame,\u201d Hilton told his opponent.<\/p>\n
\u201cTrump used to put kids in cages \u2013 we changed all that,\u201d said a defensive Becerra, adding: \u201cWhat I won\u2019t do is invite ICE into our state.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYou welcomed ICE mercenaries into this state,\u201d Becerra said to Hilton. \u201cYou seem to welcome immigrants who look like you but deport immigrants that look like me.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hilton paused: \u201cWhat a disgraceful remark.\u201d<\/p>\n
A frustrated Hilton at one point complained to Becerra that \u201cAll you ever say is Trump, Trump, Trump.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYou chased his endorsement,\u201d responded Becerra.<\/p>\n
Hilton defended the anti-vaccine efforts of the Trump Administration, while saying he was \u201cpro-vaccine.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe had nearly eradicated measles (59 cases reported so far in California this year), and today children are dying of measles,\u201d Becerra said. \u201cThat\u2019s what happens when vaccine deniers take over \u2013 we can\u2019t reward those who are willing to let families die.\u201d<\/p>\n
When Hilton promised to \u201cincrease affordable health care for California\u201d with lower costs and lower premiums, Becerra reminded him that Republican cuts to Medicaid and Obamacare subsidies \u201cwill kick people off health care\u2026and close hospitals.\u201d<\/p>\n
In his closing remarks, Hilton pleaded with voters: \u201cIt\u2019s time to try something different\u201d after 16 years of one-party domination and a \u201cbloated government.\u201d<\/p>\n
Becerra reminded voters that Hilton \u201cnever served in government, and never balanced a budget.\u201d He ended the evening by promising to protect Californians from\u00a0 \u201ca tyrant like Donald Trump.\u201d<\/p>\n
Voting centers and ballot boxes open next week. The ballot counting begins on Election Day, Nov. 3.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Three decades of journalism experience, as a writer and editor with Gannett, Knight-Ridder and Lee newspapers, as a business journal editor and publisher and as a weekly newspaper editor in Scotts Valley and Gilroy; with the Weeklys group since 2017. Recipient of several first-place writing and editing awards, California News Publishers Association.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Democrat Xavier Becerra and Republican Steve Hilton came out swinging tonight in a nationally televised CNN gubernatorial debate,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":481253,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[2007,2926,5177,26532,1751,14019,188696,5037,79063,1280,1493,1011,14,2803,1748,88,90,89,17382,3707],"class_list":["post-481252","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-jose","tag-ai","tag-california-governor","tag-cnn","tag-debate","tag-democrats","tag-fox-news","tag-general-election-nov-3","tag-gov-gavin-newsom","tag-gubernatorial-debate","tag-health-care","tag-homelessness","tag-housing","tag-immigration","tag-president-donald-trump","tag-republicans","tag-san-jose","tag-san-jose-headlines","tag-san-jose-news","tag-steve-hilton","tag-xavier-becerra"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/481252","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=481252"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/481252\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/481253"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=481252"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=481252"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=481252"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}