Out of all of President Biden’s Cabinet nominees, Xavier Becerra was by far the worst. On that, nearly all Republicans agreed — all of them, that is, except Sen. Susan Collins, who was the only GOP senator to vote to confirm the California attorney general as Biden’s Health and Human Services secretary on Thursday.
Collins said in a statement that she voted for Becerra because the conversations she had with him in private and public settings gave her confidence that his confirmation was warranted. She admitted “there are issues where I strongly disagree” with Becerra but described her vote as an effort to make bipartisanship work.
But Becerra’s record proves he is not interested in bipartisanship at all, to say nothing of the fact that he is not qualified for the post.
As California’s attorney general, Becerra showed disregard, even disdain, for the First Amendment protections of religious people. He tried to force the Little Sisters of the Poor, a Catholic religious order, to violate its religious beliefs with a lawsuit against the federal government that would have stripped the organization of a religious exemption from an Obamacare mandate requiring employers to provide contraceptive and abortifacients coverage.
He spearheaded the criminal prosecution of two pro-life leaders from the Center for Medical Progress after they released undercover videos about Planned Parenthood — an action even the Los Angeles Times considered a “disturbing overreach.” He also defended a California law forcing pro-life pregnancy centers to advertise abortion options all the way to the Supreme Court, where he lost. And just last year, Becerra defied the federal government’s order to stop enforcing a California law that forced churches to provide abortion coverage in their insurance plans.
The Supreme Court has had to intervene twice already to remind Becerra that he cannot use the powers of his office to overturn the rights of people with whom he disagrees. But that has not stopped Becerra from trying. He has been ruthless in his efforts to expand leftist policies and squash religious dissenters. And now he’s going to bring that zeal to the federal government, where he will have much more authority over how policies are enforced nationally.
Becerra’s record speaks for itself. He is not a centrist like Collins; he’s a radical, incapable of good-faith compromise, unwilling to bend on controversial issues such as abortion, and utterly lacking in experience when it comes to healthcare. Becerra would have been confirmed regardless of Collins’s vote, but she still should have voted against him. It’s only a matter of time before he gives her reason to regret.
