Former Democratic Congressman Eric Swalwell may have abandoned of the California gubernatorial race amid allegations of sexual misconduct, but his scandal was still in question during the first debate since his exit.
On Wednesday night, moderators turned the spotlight on Swalwell’s former House colleague Xavier Becerra, asking him what he knew about Swalwell’s behavior and whether he should have done anything when Becerra was chairman of the House Democratic caucus.
Becerra, who most recently served as President Joe Biden’s secretary of health and human services, was asked about his remarks in a recent interview he had heard “rumors” about Swalwell.
“You hear rumors all the time about all kinds of things. Rumors are not facts, and the… Democratic caucus is not the place that judges these things,” Becerra said Wednesday night.
Becerra served as chairman of the House Democratic Caucus from 2013 to 2017.
“It’s the police who do it. If someone had come forward, we could then open an investigation,” he added.
Swalwell, who led a group of Democrats in the gubernatorial primary, left the race less than two weeks ago after sexual assault allegations also forced his resignation from Congress.
President Donald Trump, along with Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom, also suspended the 90-minute debate – an hour of which was televised and another 30 minutes accessible online. – which was largely focused on the cost of living.
As Democrats blamed rising gas taxes and cost-of-living struggles on Trump’s presidency, the two Republicans on stage — conservative commentator and former Fox News host Steve Hilton and Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco — criticized Democrats for taxing and regulating state residents into oblivion.
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Wednesday evening debate highlighted jockeys intensified in a race where Democrats are still fighting for the lead. Two Republicans hold the top two seeds, according to a recent poll.
In California, only two candidates, from both parties, advance to the second round. Democrats fear that because the party’s voters are split among so many candidates, they could be “left out” on June 2.
In a series of new polls released this week, Becerra appears to be the biggest beneficiary of Swalwell’s departure, going from a failure in a long line of Democrats to a genuine contender. Billionaire activist Tom Steyer maintains a slight lead in this poll. Former Rep. Katie Porter and San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan are the other leading Democratic candidates.
The California Democratic Party released a follow-up poll this week showing that 13% of likely voters supported Becerra, a jump from the 4% he was at before Swalwell’s ouster.
Becerra’s recent rise was evident in some of his opponents’ moves.
While Mahan had called Steyer an out-of-touch billionaire, he also went after Becerra, calling him “a D.C. insider that the Sacramento establishment is now rallying around.”
Porter also attacked Becerra, accusing him of not having enough full accounting behind his proposals.
“Mr. Becerra, you have all these great plans, but there are never any numbers, a revenue plan, any details, anything that pushes the status quo. It’s all due. But the how, the why, how much of that is all missing,” Porter said.
Becerra, who also served as California’s attorney general from 2017 to 2021, countered that he had to balance the budgets of a large federal agency for four years.
Each candidate was asked to rate Newsom’s work on the homeless issue. That included Steyer, who previously hesitated 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” for his overall performance and said Newsom had done just as poorly on homelessness when asked if the governor had done anything right in that area.
“As for praising Gavin Newsom for the photo op where he tried to pretend to clean up a homeless encampment, Gavin Newsom did it three times in a row,” Hilton said. “Nothing has changed, and nothing will change if one of these Democrats is in power. It will be pretty much the same.”
Hilton said it was illegal to live on the streets and “we have to enforce the law.” He emphasized referring people to drug treatment or mental health treatment. This prompted a rebuke from Porter, who accused Hilton of fundamentally misunderstanding the question.
“Mr. Hilton, you will learn in my Bankruptcy and Consumer Protection course that the majority of homeless people in California actually work,” she said. “It’s not just people with mental illness or people with substance abuse or substance abuse issues. It’s also about families who are fleeing domestic and domestic violence, people who are doubles, even triplets. It’s people who are living in their cars on our college campuses. Homelessness takes many different forms.”
Becerra also fired back against Hilton, who had been endorsed by Trump.
“It’s interesting to see someone who’s been an anchor on a Fox News show telling us how government should work when he’s never run a government in his life,” Becerra said. “It’s fascinating that he can do all these things, but he’s talking about not collecting any revenue to be able to do this work. It doesn’t make sense. The math doesn’t work.”
Hilton touted Trump’s support, calling it a “profound honor” after becoming a U.S. citizen, which he called one of the proudest days of his life.
Hilton said he would use his relationship with the president to benefit California, from forest management to increasing the state’s energy production.
While Steyer leveraged his wealth to fund his candidacy, he countered that his work on environmental protection had attracted strong detractors.
“I’m the only billionaire on the ballot, but I’m not the only billionaire in this race. Billionaires and corporations are spending big in this race to oppose me,” Steyer said. “I am the billionaire who wants to tax other billionaires. I am the billionaire who attacks the electric monopolies and tries to break their power. I am the billionaire who wants to tax the oil companies and make the polluters pay.”