Even Xavier Becerra's fellow Democrats think he's a running joke for California governor -Politico
Even Xavier Becerra’s fellow Democrats are laughing at the idea of him governing California, calling his rise from derided Biden cabinet secretary to gubernatorial frontrunner ‘amazing’ in the worst way.
Xavier Becerra has rocketed to the front of California’s crowded Democratic gubernatorial primary after Eric Swalwell’s flameout, yet six former Biden administration officials are using their group chats to treat the prospect as the campaign’s running joke.
“It’s like: ‘We need to figure out a candidate who can win!’ But then…him? Really?’” one former Biden official told Politico. Another said the subject of Becerra’s unlikely ascent “gets the biggest laugh every time we send around a poll,” citing his widely viewed failures on the COVID response and the migrant health crisis at the border.
Those failures carry numbers. As HHS secretary, Becerra “lost” at least 64,000 unaccompanied migrant children from the Biden border surge; the count stayed that low only because the incoming Trump administration tracked many of them down. During COVID, his department stood out for absentee leadership and 90 percent empty buildings while tens of thousands of bureaucrats followed his example.
California’s own Democratic governor, Gavin Newsom, has told aides he considers Becerra an idiot and pointedly refused to endorse him. When asked about the former state attorney general who served the first two years of his term, Newsom answered only, “I’m focused on diapers.”
Democrats are also feeding damaging material to Becerra’s primary rivals. A recent scandal involving his chief of staff stealing from the campaign account reinforced the picture of lax management. Billions in fraud and corruption slipped through health bureaucracies on his watch, a point raised in the most recent debate.
The pattern is familiar: another Democrat elevated after a frontrunner collapses, this time with baggage so obvious that even the party that elevated him is snickering. Republicans don’t need to write the attack ads; the leaks are already arriving from the people who worked alongside him.
Original reporting: Americanthinker.com.
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