Democrats wanted a frontrunner in California\u2019s gubernatorial race. What they did not envision was Xavier Becerra, whose abrupt rise from afterthought to favorite has left former Biden administration officials \u2014 his one-time colleagues \u2014 reacting with a mix of incredulity, mockery and resignation.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s like: \u2018We need to figure out a candidate who can win!\u2019 But then\u2026him? Really?\u2019\u201d said one former Biden administration official. \u201cIt\u2019s amazing.\u201d<\/p>\n
In the last several weeks, as former Rep. Eric Swalwell\u2019s flameout catapulted Becerra to the front of a crowded June primary, Biden White House alumni have been marveling at his stroke of luck \u2014 and the growing possibility that a Cabinet official who was widely derided and deemed to have been in over his head could soon be the governor of the country\u2019s largest state.<\/p>\n
Six former Biden administration officials, all of whom were granted anonymity to speak candidly about a former colleague, acknowledged the subject of Becerra\u2019s unlikely rise has come to dominate their group chats and conversations. \u201cIt gets the biggest laugh every time we send around a poll,\u201d the first former official said, describing the perception across the administration that the former HHS secretary was ineffective<\/a> on the Covid response, a migrant health crisis at the border and other matters.<\/p>\n \u201cHe ran one of the most consequential agencies in government at the height of the pandemic,\u201d the former official continued. \u201cBut he took a backseat to Dr. Fauci and his team, didn\u2019t visibly lead on implementation and had to go through layers to get to POTUS even as a Cabinet member.\u201d<\/p>\n A second former Biden official shared that view, describing Becerra as having been \u201cabsent\u201d on Covid responses. So did a third former Biden official, who called Biden\u2019s selection of the former California attorney general, who brought no medical or public health background to the job, \u201can unfortunate choice.\u201d<\/p>\n Becerra, a fourth former Biden official said, \u201cis very good at being a politician. When he was attorney general, the formula was: you file a lawsuit. When you\u2019re a member of Congress, you help your constituents and you introduce legislation. When people noticed he wasn\u2019t cut out for [the Cabinet] was when there was a crisis \u2014 it was clear he didn\u2019t know how to handle that.\u201d<\/p>\n A campaign representative said Becerra was unavailable, referring comment to Ron Klain, who was White House chief of staff for the first two years of Biden\u2019s term and was an early supporter of Becerra\u2019s run for governor. Klain pushed back on the critiques of Becerra.<\/p>\n \u201cI think Secretary Becerra was one of the most effective members of the president\u2019s Cabinet and delivered on the president\u2019s agenda very powerfully and had a record,\u201d Klain said in an interview, arguing the recent public broadsides against Becerra have emanated from \u201cmore junior people.\u201d<\/p>\n Beyond the Covid response, which was largely run out of the White House, Becerra seemed slow to activate or at times uninformed about the migrant crisis at the southern border<\/a> when a rush of detainees overwhelmed federal facilities, according to four of the former officials.<\/p>\n At one point, leaders from some of the largest Latino advocacy organizations went to the White House<\/a> and asked for Becerra to be included in more meetings. But some in the West Wing, including Biden, were frustrated by his apparent lack of preparation when he was in the room.<\/p>\n \u201cHe would go to brief the president and was not prepared at all, almost to the point where it was an embarrassment,\u201d the fourth official said. \u201cBiden would pepper him with questions and he would not be able to answer them.\u201d<\/p>\n Klain said that description did not match his experience, noting he was present for most of Becerra\u2019s meetings with Biden.<\/p>\n \u201cHe was always very well prepared and always had a very forceful and insightful point of view,\u201d Klain said.<\/p>\n The chatter had been mostly private until Tuesday evening\u2019s gubernatorial debate aired on CNN \u2014 during which one of his rivals, Matt Mahan, said Biden \u201chad to sideline him during Covid because he wasn’t delivering results,\u201d a claim Becerra refuted. Afterward during a panel appearance during the network\u2019s post-debate coverage, former Biden Justice Department communications director Xochitl Hinojosa spoke of Becerra<\/a> as \u201cnot effective\u201d while leading HHS.<\/p>\n \u201cA lot of people in the Biden administration are talking about this because they realize that he was not an effective HHS secretary,\u201d Hinojosa said. \u201cAnd if you ask any Cabinet secretary, they would tell you the same thing.\u201d<\/p>\n Neera Tanden, who served as Biden’s Domestic Policy Council chair and White House staff secretary, responded to Hinojosa\u2019s comments Tuesday evening with a post on X.<\/p>\n \u201cI worked directly with Becerra, often daily, and this is bs,\u201d Tanden, now the president of the Center for American Progress, a progressive Washington think tank, wrote in response to a clip of Hinojosa\u2019s remarks<\/a>. \u201cHe delivered on Medicare Drug negotiation, $35 insulin and got health care coverage for 14 million more people. We appreciated that he got big things done.\u201d<\/p>\n Tanden ended with another sharp rejoinder at Hinojosa, who led communications at the Department of Justice under former Attorney General Merrick Garland. \u201cAnd the least favorite cabinet secretary? Well that might have been closer to your old neck of the woods,\u201d Tanden wrote.<\/p>\n