We were right: Xavier Becerra is a disaster, and his creepy door-to-door comments show why

President Joe Biden this week announced his administration will go “door-to-door” to encourage more people to get vaccinated against the coronavirus. However, critics of the plan say it’s invasive, especially if the people tasked with knocking on doors plan to inquire about vaccination status.

Not so, says Becerra, who claimed Thursday it’s absolutely the government’s right to know whether a person has been vaccinated.

The moment occurred after CNN host Brianna Keilar asked the HHS secretary to respond to Republican critics of the president’s new outreach effort.

“I wonder if you can answer that criticism,” the anchor said. “It’s none of the government’s business knowing who has or hasn’t been vaccinated. What do you say?”

Becerra responded, saying, “Brianna, perhaps we should point out that the federal government has spent trillions of dollars to keep Americans alive during this pandemic. So, it is absolutely the government’s business. It is taxpayers’ business if we have to continue to spend money to try to keep people from contracting COVID and helping reopen the economy.”

“And so it is our business to try to make sure Americans can prosper,” he added, “Americans can freely associate. And knocking on a door has never been against the law. You don’t have to answer, but we hope you do. Because if you haven’t been vaccinated, we can help dispel some of the rumors you heard and hopefully get you vaccinated.”

Earlier, on July 6, Biden said specifically of his “door-to-door” strategy: “We need to go to community by community, neighborhood by neighborhood, and oftentimes door to door, literally knocking on doors to get help to the remaining people, protected from the virus.”

He added, “As we shift from these centralized mass vaccination sites, where we’re doing thousands of people a day, we’re going to put even more emphasis on getting vaccinated in your community, close to home, conveniently, and a location you’re already familiar with.”

A strategy wherein volunteers or even government agents go door-to-door encouraging people to get vaccinated, if this is indeed all that is entailed in Biden’s outreach strategy, sounds innocuous enough. It would be about as harmful as any public service announcement or robocall. Annoying? Sure. Intrusive? Maybe. Overreach? Not really. It’s murkier and more disturbing, however, if said agents are also required to ask about vaccination status. This would be invasive. It’s unclear, though, whether the people knocking on doors will be made to do this (it’s likewise unclear whether the effort will use federal agents or third-party contractors).

But leave it to Becerra to take an already questionable proposal and market it in the worst way possible, arguing explicitly that the federal government has a right to know about the status of personal medical decisions. This is obviously a step too far.

And it’s actually worse than that. Becerra argues the government has a right to know not so much as a matter of public health, but because the federal government has already invested trillions of dollars in containing the pandemic.

First, the government invested nothing of its own. It invested your money. It’s not as if the cash that went into vaccine research and distribution came directly from Uncle Sam’s personal stash. It came out of your pocket.

Secondly, the government does not, in fact, have a right to know about your personal medical decisions, even if it believes it’s entitled to that information because it made a significant investment in pandemic mitigation efforts. Becerra’s line of thinking here is a little — creepy? It’s the equivalent of a date thinking he’s “owed” something (use your imagination) because he paid for dinner. Except, in this specific scenario, the date didn’t even pay. His date paid, and he still thinks he’s owed something.

Amusingly enough, Becerra attempted to walk back his comments Thursday, claiming, as they always do in crisis communications, that he has been taken out of context.

“Some comments I made today are being taken wildly out of context,” he said.

Becerra added, “To be clear: Government has no database tracking who is vaccinated. We’re encouraging people to step up to protect themselves, others, by getting vaccinated. It’s the best way to save lives and end this pandemic.”

What, exactly, has been taken out of context? He doesn’t say!

Republicans were right. Becerra is a disaster.