Republicans are gearing up for a protracted battle with the incoming Biden administration over his controversial pick to lead the Department of Health and Human Services, saying the announcement dispels any illusions that President-elect Joe Biden was interested in reaching out to conservatives.
Xavier Becerra, who currently serves as California’s 33rd attorney general, has long been involved in what Republicans consider scandals and abuses of power, starting with a controversial commutation by former President Bill Clinton to his role in the prosecution of an anti-Planned Parenthood activist.
Nor does Becerra appear qualified for the job, conservatives say. For all the talk of Biden’s commitment to expertise on the campaign trail, his pick for HHS has virtually no experience in the medical or healthcare field. The pick stands in stark contrast to former President Barack Obama’s picks of women such as Kathleen Sebelius or Sylvia Matthews Burwell, both of whom worked in either state insurance agencies or healthcare-focused nonprofit organizations. President Trump’s HHS secretary, Alex Azar, previously worked as a general counsel of the department before spending five years as a senior executive for the drug company Eli Lilly and Company.
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“Becerra’s a bright guy. I’m not arguing that. And we served briefly together in the House, didn’t know him, but [he] always appeared very capable. But that’s not to say he knows anything about healthcare,” Louisiana Sen. Bill Cassidy, a Republican, told reporters on Tuesday.
Senate Republicans intend to bring this to the forefront of any confirmation proceedings for Becerra. Of particular concern is Becerra’s role in the criminal case against David Daleiden, an anti-abortion activist who now works as the president of the Center for Medical Progress. Daleiden sparked a new battle in the culture wars with his 2015 series of videos showing employees of Planned Parenthood in various states, including California, discussing the pricing of aborted fetuses and organs. Pro-abortion activists and Democrats attacked the footage as misleading. Planned Parenthood denied it ever sold human remains.
The videos led Republicans to call for criminal investigations into abortion providers. Then-candidate Trump called Planned Parenthood’s conduct “disgraceful” and said as president he’d shut down the government if the organization didn’t lose its federal funding.
Democrats, however, called Daleiden’s conduct a smear campaign and unlawful. Kamala Harris, then California’s attorney general, opened a criminal investigation into Daleiden for his undercover videos — the first of its kind in the history of the state. A series of raids conducted on Daleiden’s home earned praise from pro-abortion groups such as NARAL Pro-Choice America.
When Harris was elected to the Senate in 2016, Becerra resigned from his position as a congressman and was confirmed as California attorney general in January 2017. Three months into his new job, Becerra charged Daleiden and his associate Sandra Merritt with 15 felonies.
Republicans nationwide decried the move as politically motivated and a chilling attack on free speech. Four months into the case, a San Francisco judge dismissed 14 of the charges were dismissed against Daleiden and his alleged co-conspirator. State prosecutors quickly refiled the charges, nine of which Daleiden and Merritt are currently standing trial for.
A 2019 civil lawsuit filed by Planned Parenthood resulted in a judgment for $2.2 million against Daleiden and Merritt, with a judge rejecting their claims the videos were protected by the First Amendment. In May of this year, Daleiden sued Harris and Becerra for civil rights violations.
“This complaint seeks justice for a brazen, unprecedented, and ongoing conspiracy to selectively use California’s video recording laws as a political weapon to silence disfavored speech,” the lawsuit reads. “David Daleiden became the first journalist ever to be criminally prosecuted under California’s recording law, not because of the method of video recording he utilized in his investigation — which is common in investigative journalism in this state — but because his investigation revealed and he published “shock[ing]” content that California’s Attorney General and the private party co-conspirators wanted to cover up.”
Sen. Tom Cotton, a Republican from Arkansas, has emerged as a leader in the opposition to Becerra. Citing the Daleiden case, the Arkansas senator called Becerra’s work as attorney general disqualifying.
“He’s a true radical on abortion,” Cotton told Fox and Friends on Tuesday. “He supported the lawsuits against nuns. He’s gone after pro-life activists in California who exposed some truly grizzly crimes by Planned Parenthood.”
Those familiar with GOP strategy on fighting Becerra’s nomination say lawmakers also intend to focus on his role in commuting the prison sentence of Carlos Vignali, the son of wealthy Democratic donor and businessman Horacio Vignali. On Bill Clinton’s last day in office, the former president issued a commutation of Vignali’s 15-year prison sentence for his role in a cocaine trafficking scheme.
Becerra was contacted by allies of the Vignali family to lobby on Carlos’s behalf to the Clinton administration. A 2002 House-GOP led report concluded that Becerra played a central role in guaranteeing Vignali’s release, citing a letter he wrote to the White House that said Vignali’s parents were “dear friends” and “solid, upstanding members of the Los Angeles community.”
“Congressman Becerra conceded that the Vignalis were not members of his constituency but that Horacio had been a friend and contributor of his for five years,” the report stated. “The Vignalis have donated at least $11,000 to Becerra’s political action committee, Leadership of Today and Tomorrow, between 1998 and 2001, $2,475 to Becerra’s congressional campaigns, and $3,500 to Becerra for the mayor’s race.”
