Former Democratic congressman Eric Swalwell may have dropped out of the California gubernatorial race amid sexual misconduct allegations, but his scandal was still at issue in the first debate since his exit.
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On Wednesday night, moderators turned the spotlight on Swalwell’s former colleague in the House, Xavier Becerra, asking what he knew about Swalwell’s behavior and whether he should have done something about it when Becerra was chair of the House Democratic Caucus.
Becerra, who most recently served as President Joe Biden’s health and human services secretary, was asked about his remarks in a recent interview that he had heard “rumors” about Swalwell.
“You hear rumors all the time about all sorts of things. Rumors are not facts, and the … Democratic caucus is not the place that adjudicates those things,” Becerra said Wednesday night.
Becerra served as chair of the House Democratic Caucus from 2013 to 2017.
“It’s law enforcement who does. If someone had come forward, then we could then have investigations,” he added.
Swalwell, who had been leading a field of Democrats in the primary contest for governor, exited the race less than two weeks ago after sexual assault allegations also forced his resignation from Congress.
President Donald Trump, as well as Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom, also hung over the 90-minute debate — an hour of which was televised, and another 30 minutes accessible online — that centered largely on the cost of living.
As Democrats blamed higher gas taxes and cost-of-living struggles on a Trump presidency, the two Republicans on stage — conservative commentator and former Fox News host Steve Hilton and Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco — blamed the Democrats for taxing and regulating the state’s residents into oblivion.
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The Wednesday night debate put on full display the intensified jockeying in a race where Democrats are still vying for the lead. Two Republicans hold the top two seeds, according to recent polling.
In California, only two candidates, of either party, advance to the second round. Democrats fear that because the party’s voters are split between so many candidates, they could be “locked out” on June 2.
In a bevy of new polling released this week, Becerra appeared to be the biggest beneficiary of Swalwell’s departure, moving up from a blip in a long line of Democrats to an actual contender. Billionaire activist Tom Steyer has maintained a narrow lead in that polling. Former Rep. Katie Porter and San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan are the other top Democratic candidates.
The California Democratic Party released a tracking poll this week showing that 13% of likely voters supported Becerra, a leap from the 4% where he stood before Swalwell’s ouster.
Becerra’s recent rise was evident in some of the jabs from his opponents.
While Mahan had characterized Steyer as an out-of-touch billionaire, he also swiped at Becerra, calling him “a D.C. insider who the Sacramento establishment is now rallying around.”
Porter also took a shot at Becerra, charging he lacked a full accounting behind his proposals.
“Mr. Becerra, you have all these lovely plans, but there are never any numbers, any revenue plan, any details, anything that pushes on the status quo. It’s just all due. But the how, why, how much it’s all missing,” Porter said.
Becerra, who also served as California’s attorney general from 2017-2021, countered that he had to balance budgets for a major federal agency for four years.
Each candidate was asked to rate Newsom’s work on the issue of homelessness. That included Steyer, who had previously demurred when asked the same question, saying he didn’t know enough. This time, Steyer gave Newsom a B- and said he would personally work to find emergency interim housing for the homeless.
Hilton gave Newsom an “F” on overall performance and said Newsom did just as poorly on the homelessness issue when he was asked if the governor had done anything right in that area.
“As for having praising Gavin Newsom for the photo op where he tried to pretend he was cleaning up a homelessness encampment, literally, Gavin Newsom did that three times in a row,” Hilton said. “Nothing changed, and nothing will change if you have one of these Democrats in power. It will be more of the same.”
Hilton said it was illegal to live on the street, and “we have to enforce the law.” He stressed moving people into either drug treatment or mental health treatment. That drew a rebuke from Porter, who accused Hilton of fundamentally misunderstanding the issue.
“Mr. Hilton, you would learn in my Bankruptcy and Consumer Protection Class that the majority of homeless people in California are actually working,” she said. “It’s not just people with mental illness or people with drug or substance use problems. It’s also families who are fleeing intimate partner and domestic violence, people who are double and tripled up. It’s people who are living in their cars on our college campuses. Homelessness comes in a lot of different forms.”
Becerra also hit back at Hilton, who was endorsed by Trump.
“It’s interesting to watch someone who has served as a talking head on a Fox News program telling us how government should run when he never has run any government in his life,” Becerra said. “It’s fascinating to see that he can do all these things, but he’s talking about not collecting any revenue to be able to do any of this work. It doesn’t add up. The math doesn’t work.”
Hilton did tout his endorsement from Trump, calling it a “deep honor” after becoming a U.S. citizen, which he called one of the proudest days of his life.
Hilton said he would use tap his relationship with the president to benefit California, from forest management to increasing the state’s energy production.
While Steyer took incoming on tapping his fortune to bankroll his candidacy, he countered that his work to protect the environment had drawn big money detractors.
“I’m the only billionaire on the ballot, but I’m not the only billionaire in this race. The billionaires and corporations are spending big in this race to oppose me,” Steyer said. “I’m the billionaire who wants to tax other billionaires. I’m the billionaire who’s taking on the electric monopolies and trying to break up their power. I’m the billionaire who wants to tax the oil companies and make polluters pay.”
