Ex-White House officials provide attack ad fodder for Xavier Becerra’s rivals
Former state Attorney General Xavier Becerra has come under fire from his fellow candidates as he’s surged in the governor’s race for his handling of COVID and children migrating to the U.S. alone while he was secretary of Health and Human Services.
This time, it’s his fellow former White House officials who have provided the latest round of attack ad fodder.
Following CNN’s combative forum Tuesday night, commentator Xochitl Hinojosa said she “didn’t trust” Becerra to stand up to President Donald Trump if he was elected governor, based on his performance in the Biden administration. Hinojosa served as director of the U.S. Department of Justice’s Office of Public Affairs from 2023 to 2025, overlapping with Becerra’s time at HHS, where he served as secretary from 2021 to 2025.
“I don’t trust that he would be able to do that because I don’t trust that he would be able to stand up to Trump and lead,” Hinojosa said, eliciting surprise from fellow panelists Van Jones and Scott Jennings. “He was not effective in government. A lot of people in the Biden administration are talking about this because they realize he was not an effective HHS secretary. If you ask any cabinet secretary, they would tell you the same thing.”
Michael LaRosa, a spokesperson for former first lady Jill Biden, said on X that Hinojosa’s assessment of Becerra was “the more accurate and most widely held view about him, at least in the first two years at the WH (White House). But he also wasn’t Biden’s first choice or his first choice who was offered and accepted that job, either.”
Becerra’s campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
LaRosa was responding to a post highlighting Hinojosa’s comments from Kevin Liao, a strategist for Tom Steyer, a Democratic billionaire climate activist whom the most recent poll from the state Democratic Party said had fallen six points behind Becerra in the governor’s race. The poll had Becerra tied at 18% support at the top of the field with Republican Steve Hilton, a Fox News pundit.
Former President Joe Biden tapped Becerra as his HHS Secretary in 2020, following pressure for Biden to appoint more Latinos to his cabinet. Biden’s selection of Becerra, who had been serving as California attorney general since 2017, “astounded” some in his circle, according to the New York Times.
During Becerra’s time as HHS Secretary, the New York Times found that the agency lost contact with 85,000 unaccompanied migrant children after rushing to release them from shelters to sponsors. Many of those minors ended up being trafficked into exploitative factory jobs, according to the New York Times. Becerra was also criticized for appearing alienated from the Biden administration’s pandemic response.
Former White House chief of staff to President Biden, Ronald Klain, pushed back against the criticism saying Becerra was “among the most valued and highest performing members of the president’s cabinet.”
“His leadership on the migrant issues and healthcare coverage were unmatched, and he achieved a historic win for the American people on lowering prices of prescription drugs,” Klain said.
On Wednesday, Steyer, former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan all cut ads highlighting Hinojosa’s comments. Villaraigosa and Mahan are Democrats who have been polling at single digits.
“Xavier Becerra’s colleagues don’t trust him. Why should you?” Steyer said on X.
“If you only have experience being ineffective, is that really experience?” Mahan wrote.
“Listen to Xochitl,” the Villaraigosa campaign said.
This story was originally published May 6, 2026 at 3:22 PM with the headline "Ex-White House officials provide attack ad fodder for Xavier Becerra’s rivals."
