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California’s likely next governor, Democrat Xavier Becerra, refused to answer about his handling of migrant children as Health and Human Services secretary and other questions from reporters as he tried to slip away from a Sacramento press conference.
Becerra was briefly at the capitol grounds Wednesday for a presser supporting state legislation on voting rights as an adviser to the UCLA Voting Rights Project.
In the middle of the conference, Becerra and aides quickly left and tried to race to a parked car. The California Post was the first to chase after him and other reporters soon followed.
A Becerra aide said he would not take any questions at the event, and the Democratic frontrunner ignored questions from The Post on whether he had any regrets about his time as HHS secretary under President Joe Biden, when he was heavily criticized by Republicans and Democrats alike for his handling of migrant children and Covid.
Becerra’s rival in the governor’s race, Republican Steve Hilton, has in recent weeks been hammering Becerra for his handling of a surge in migrant children during Biden’s presidency.
Hilton has brought forth whistleblowers who have alleged the Democrat rushed to get children to sponsors without careful vetting — leaving minors exposed to trafficking and other dangers.
Becerra’s inability to track tens of thousands of migrant children while leading HHS was also a major issue during the primary that fellow Dems pounced on.
“Becerra has time for staged press conferences, but he has yet to accept the growing pile of debate requests or answer for the children failed under his watch,” Hilton said in a statement. “If Becerra wants to be governor, he must stop hiding.”
Becerra also ignored most questions from other reporters as he walked to his vehicle. He did answer one question about whether he plans to debate Hilton at some point, responding that he does plan to do so.
The candidate did not specify when and how many debates, and a spokesperson refused to elaborate.
When pressed on why Becerra could not hold a quick session with reporters, spokesperson Jonathan Underland told reporters that he had a tight schedule and needed to leave for a private event in Fresno.
“It is Healthcare Center Week, and there is a health center in Fresno that’s been doing really the Lord’s work to sort of backfill capacity in in that rural county,” Underland said. “As you know, Trump cut about a trillion dollars in the federal budget on healthcare… so he’s very concerned about that.”
Underland insisted Becerra isn’t trying to avoid talking to reporters.
“We’re going to spend a lot of time speaking with the journalists that he’s going to have to work with if he’s elected. Like I said, we’re going to be in Sacramento a lot,” Underland said.
The Becerra campaign in past statements have expressed pride in the candidate’s tenure as Health and Human Services secretary, instead accusing Hilton of being anti-immigrant given his ties to President Donald Trump.
Becerra had told Congress that his agency’s legal authority over unaccompanied migrant children ends once they are placed with an approved sponsor unless Congress granted him that authority.
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