California governor candidate torn apart for feisty pre-interview chat: ‘Dude it’s 2026’

California gubernatorial candidate Xavier Becerra is getting a lot of media attention following his relatively new status as the Democratic frontrunner, but a pre-interview moment published Tuesday is giving opponents ammunition for his handling of the press.

KTLA sat down with Becerra, a former Health and Human Services secretary, for an interview about his candidacy, but before the first question was asked, even the media outlet said it “got off to an awkward start.”

Becerra asked the reporter at the beginning, “By the way, this is a profile piece, this is not a gotcha piece, right?”

The reporter, Annie Ramos, said the questions will be fair.

“So long it’s about the profile,” Becerra said.

Ramos said she doesn’t know how Becerra defines what a profile is, but wanted to get questions started. Becerra then laid out what he thinks a profile should be about.

“The way I describe profile is you talk about all the things that I’ve done, things I want to do, and along with some tough questions,” he said.

“But not only tough questions.”

Some political observers criticized the interaction as an insecure candidate concerned about too many uncomfortable questions.

“Everyone’s been wondering whether Xavier Becerra can withstand scrutiny,” said Kevin Liao, a spokesperson for Democratic candidate Tom Steyer. “Take a look at this interview clip and judge for yourself.”

Democratic strategist Michael Trujillo, who supports rival Antonio Villaraigosa, saw it as what some may perceive to be “mansplaining.”

“I’ve seen this a lot in my community. A man telling a younger woman how to do her job,” he said. “Dude, it’s 2026.”

This is not the first time Becerra has been criticized for his relations with the media. Multiple reporters have noted, for instance, that after recent gubernatorial debates, Becerra was the only candidate who did not wait to be interviewed in the post-debate spin rooms.

His campaign has attributed those absences to other commitments he needed to get to, and some supporters of Becerra said there was no need.

“No need to spin the press if you said it all on the debate stage,” said Jonathan Underland, who one reporter noted is working for the campaign. “If you can’t get your points out in 90 minutes, you might have a problem.”

The California Post reached out to the Becerra campaign for comment.

According to the most recent polling, the former state attorney general is leading all other Democrats at around 20%, jostling for first place with Republican candidate Steve Hilton. The primary is June 2.

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