HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra is in hot water with the White House — again. Last week, Becerra suggested that maybe the 50 states should do more in the fight to contain Monkeypox instead of looking to Washington for all the answers.
After activists had spent weeks trying to pressure the White House to get the federal government to do more to contain the disease, they were livid with Becerra and Biden.
“He doesn’t want to take the heat for others,” one senior administration official vented. “He’s just out of his depth.”
That much was obvious during the coronavirus pandemic as the confusing and sometimes contradictory guidance on the new virus strains angered almost everyone.
But what to do about Xavier Becerra, the highest ranking Hispanic in the administration?
There is no chance of Biden firing his Health secretary, senior administration officials said, especially amid multiple public health emergencies and just months to go until the midterms. But there is growing chatter that Becerra might soon find an off-ramp.
Some White House aides believe Becerra, a former California congressman and attorney general, may resign at the end of the year to run for Senate in 2024, according to three people familiar with the discussions.
It’s an idea that Lovenheim quickly dismissed.
“He would tell you he’s not doing that today, tomorrow or next year,” she said. “He’s not running for the U.S. Senate.”
With the Democrats already bleeding Hispanic supporters, the idea of firing the incompetent Becerra is not being entertained. This shows the utter shallowness and ultimate disaster caused by worshipping at the altar of diversity and cataloging skin colors to “balance” the administration’s racial portfolio.
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Prior to becoming HHS secretary, Becerra had zero experience in the bureaucracy, although he was a very experienced politician serving 12 terms in the House. He also served as California attorney general. Alex Burns and Jonathan Martin describe in their book This Will Not Pass, the haphazard, almost comical way the Hispanic Becerra got the job of HHS secretary because Biden needed a quick political fix to mend fences with the Hispanic caucus.
Hispanics had been insulted by Biden’s refusal to offer New Mexico Gov. Lujan Grisham an important cabinet posting after she turned down the Interior Department post, and Biden had to move quickly before the narrative that he was shafting people of color took hold. They met with Ron Klain shortly after the Grisham episode blew up in the press.
The wounded lawmakers urged Klain and the other Biden aides to speed up the appointment of more Hispanic cabinet members. The contents of the tense meeting leaked to reporters immediately, irritating Klain and panicking transition officials who feared that a public narrative about spurned lawmakers of color could spiral out of control.
Desperate to calm the situation, Biden and Klain made a hasty choice from their remaining candidates for health secretary. The day after the CHC meeting, transition officials reached out to Xavier Becerra, the congressman-turned-California attorney general who was hoping to lead the Department of Justice, to ask if he’d consider taking a different cabinet job — perhaps health secretary. When Becerra said he would, Biden quickly called him to offer him the job, and on December 6, three days after the meeting with Hispanic lawmakers, transition officials confirmed to reporters that Becerra had been chosen.
Josh Barro was incredulous: “Xavier Becerra was given the top health care job in the Biden administration as a quick fix to a PR controversy about cabinet diversity during the transition.”
So what do we expect when Becerra proves to be less than competent?
What the American people expect is a minimal level of competence — and we’re not getting it.
As Health secretary, Becerra oversees a sprawling array of agencies including the Food and Drug Administration and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Yet he’s often reluctant to take a strong hand in coordinating their work, a dynamic that officials said has hampered the public health responses and allowed internal disputes to spill into the open.
And though Becerra is widely seen as a talented politician and public speaker, his political experience hasn’t always translated into intricate health policy communication.
On the same call where Becerra sought to shift responsibility for the monkeypox response to the states, he also bristled at a seemingly straightforward question about whether the government could successfully contain the outbreak.
“I almost want to turn that question back at you,” Becerra challenged one reporter. “And ask you, how many vaccines do you think we need at this stage?”
Losers and incompetents always blame others for their failures. But Biden is stuck with Becerra until he gets tired of seeing himself disrespected by “anonymous” White House aides who are actually doing the bidding of Klain or Biden.
