Becerra skips post-debate spin room after coming under fire for mishandling migrant crisis

LOS ANGELES, CA— As Tom Steyer laid out his plans for taking on corporate interests and lowering costs for working Californians, Xavier Becerra stumbled his way through a gubernatorial debate for the second consecutive night.

Becerra gave no straight answers on oil production, on healthcare, on housing, or on his mishandling of migrant children. Voters walked away with more questions than answers on Becerra’s record and vision for California.

Becerra struggled to defend his record as HHS secretary, especially in the face of scrutiny over 85,000 migrant children who disappeared under his watch. He continued calling them “MAGA talking points” despite scathing evidence from New York Times reporting and the testimony of Becerra’s colleagues in the Biden Administration.

In perhaps his only straightforward answer of the night, Becerra said he would drill more oil in California – following the lead of his big-spending oil industry backers. Becerra has accepted a maximum contribution from Chevron, which is price gouging Californians at the pump.

And Becerra’s deep ties to corruption were on blast, raising questions about what Becerra knew about the scandal engulfing his former chief of staff and top aides. Last night, he encouraged people to “read the indictment,” and tonight, questions still went unanswered.

Amid the back-and-forth between candidates, Steyer delivered a clear vision for addressing the affordability crisis and lowering costs – tackling the housing crisis, delivering single-payer healthcare, and bringing down costs at the pump – by taking on the special interests driving them up.

“The person on this stage who is going after those costs and driving them down for working Californians is me. And I’m doing it by going after the special interest corporations who are driving up our costs. I’m going after electrical costs that are driven by the electric monopolies. I’m going after gas costs that are driven by the oil companies. I’m going after health care costs. I’m for single payer. And I’m going after housing costs,” said Steyer. “You can tell I’m doing this because the special interests are spending tens of millions of dollars to stop me, but I’m the person on this stage who’s willing to change California and go after the corporate interests that are driving up the costs for working people.”

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