Xavier Becerra has made a campaign out of saying nothing. Steve Hilton will seemingly say anything to anyone as long as there’s a microphone.
Neither dynamic is promising for voters tuning into Wednesday night’s televised debate on CNN with the two candidates vying to replace Gavin Newsom as California’s new governor.
But don’t worry, Golden State voters — Times columnists Gustavo Arellano, Mark Z. Barabak and Anita Chabria are watching every minute, every second, really, to bring you the zingers, gaffes and hopefully maybe even some insights.
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Barabak: And that’s all, folks!
Arellano: The camera ends with Hilton and Becerra standing awkwardly and not shaking hands. Jake should’ve pulled a number out of the Bob Marley playbook when he forced rival political Jamaican leaders to join him on stage and greet each other. Yeah, that went nowhere — but it’s a start for rapproachment, no?
Arellano: Becerra by a country mile. Now, he goes back to his bunker like Punxsutawney Phil until Election Night.
Chabria: Winner, winner chicken dinner? It’s Becerra, with a surprising strong performance. Any arguments, Mark or Gustavo?
Arellano: After complaining for an hour about how horrible California is…Hilton now says it’s “the most amazing” state of them all? Well, which one is it, Steve?
Barabak: Hilton’s response: The California dream! The California spirit, which is being crushed, he says, by Becerra and his fellow Democrats.
Barabak: Becerra’s response: The California Dream! But we can’t do with someone, he says, like Hilton who’s a political newbie and Trump lackey! “There are no training wheels in the governor’s office,” Becerra says.
Chabria: One minute left. Grab the mezcal. We earned it.
Barabak: Final question: What’s one lesson from CA’s past next governor should not forget?
Chabria: But I’ll end with this — I agree with Becerra that teachers are underpaid, and agree with Hilton our schools aren’t delivering.
Barabak: Hilton: The California dream! The California spirit, which is being crushed, he says, by Becerra and his fellow Demorcrats.
Barabak: Hilton points out, correctly, Democrats have been in charge, so Becerra needs to own it. Becerra says he’ll pay teachers more.
Arellano: Xavier did another double-sip from his CNN cup! What’s the tell there?!
Chabria: Better question, what’s in there.
Arellano: I wish it was mezcal, but I’ll settle for Cactus Cooler.
Barabak: Jake Tapper asks Becerra why, after all these years of Democratic rule, the state’s schools aren’t better. Becerra pledges less red tape. then pivots into attack on private/for-profit vs public schools.
Arellano: Fine. Matt Damon and Jimmy Kimmel, who ripped off their rivalry bit from Fred Allen and Jack Benny!
Chabria: Hilton, usually full of fight and energy, is looking deflated on stage. Feels like he knows this is a losing battle, and even his heart isn’t in it. Becerra has a confidence that — I’ll be honest is surprising — but shows he knows he’s doing well.
Arellano: If anyone needed any proof I’m the least hip of the LAT columnistas, my Fred Allen joke sealed the deal.
Chabria: And guys, please, keep it to the 21st century.
Arellano: I wish this debate was more Fred Allen and Jack Benny.
Barabak: Steve Allen?
Barabak: Fred Allen!
Barabak: Hilton tonight is more Grouchy Guy than Happy Warrior.
Barabak: What, no Jack Paar jokes?
Arellano: You know that Jake Tapper knows the average age of the audience tuning in to the debate is 65 or older when he quoted Johnny Carson’s famous Burbank putdown.
Chabria: Right, Mark? He can clearly speak when he wants.
Barabak: Becerra has been crisp, authoritative. Not sure why his campaign has been hiding him all this time.
Arellano: “This is what happens when you get to use your own facts, the alternative facts at your own hands” — Becerra smacking down Hilton specifically on healthcare but really for the entire night.
Arellano: Mark: They’re in the same town as the setting in the hella scary Steven King short story, “You Know They Got a Hell of a Band.”
Barabak: I wouldn’t mind kicking it with Elvis, Tupac, et al. Gustavo, can you introduce me to your friends?
Chabria: If anyone was flirting with a Hilton vote, I think this anti-vax conspiracy thread will hit hard. “He went along with the groupthink. This is why you can’t trust him,” says Hilton, sounding like he’s in his basement on his favorite Truth Social channel.
Arellano: “Many spoke out against it” — Hilton on a few medical experts while pushing back on Becerra saying that the reason HHS under him suggested kids use masks and vax up during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. Hey, Steve: I also know a few people who think the Earth is flat and Elvis Presley is kicking it with Tupac, Jenni Rivera and Sid Vicious in an island — should I say now that it’s “many”?
Barabak: Becerra says the Biden administration didn’t force anyone to get vaccinated. He said the Biden administration adhered to the best practices recommended by doctors and scientists. Not sure Hilton is helping himself by relitigating mask mandates, vaxxes and such.
Chabria: OMG Hilton goes full COVID conspiracy, claiming Becerra “forced children to be vaccinated when there was no public health or scientific justification for that whatsoever, forcing little babies and toddlers to wear masks when there was no justification for that whatsoever.” OK.
Arellano: And “pandejo,” of course, is a portmanteau of “pandemic” and “pendejo”! Becerra seems to either be suppressing a cough or hyperventilating at the bit of responding to Hilton’s vaccine vacuousness.
Barabak: “I would follow the law” Hilton says when Bash follows up, then suggests he wants to give parents more choice — having it both ways. He won’t repudiate Trump and won’t repudiate the nutty health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
Arellano: I don’t think vaccinations is at the height of concerns for most Californians, so what a tricky way for CNN to try and expose Hilton as a pandejo.
Barabak: We’re back! Measles, Dana Bash, says, asking Hilton about his stand on vaccinations. “I’m pro vaccine,” Hilton says. Though he criticizes Becerra for “forcing” kids to be vaccinated and “babies and toddlers” to mask up during the pandemic.
Barabak: Political competition is important. The whole checks/balances thing. California suffers as a one-party state.
Arellano: Me to my pal: Has Becerra channeled his inner cholo tonight? My pal: I don’t think he’s brought it out, but he’s been standing up stronger. He’s fighting back. He not El Gallo Negro tonight, but he’s fighting back.”
For those of you who aren’t from the Eastside or have no clue about SoCal culture, it’s a reference to the Eastside cult classic “Blood In Blood Out” — go see the film after this not-bad debate!
Barabak: “Becerra could go on vacation to Hawaii for the next month and still win. It is a shame that Democrats don’t have to try harder.” Agreed, Anita!
Barabak: If anyone was counting on Hilton making a clean, unequivocal break with Trump, they’ll be sorely disappointed.
Barabak: What? A commercial break!?!?!
Chabria: Hilton voices support for Prop. 39 and says the majority of Californians want new voter ID laws, which is false. Prop. 39 is a Trump conspiracy being pushed into California law, and it says a lot that Hilton won’t say it.
Chabria: But Hilton has a point. The Democrats do take it for granted that Becerra is going to win. Honestly, Becerra could go on vacation to Hawaii for the next month and still win. It is a shame that Democrats don’t have to try harder.
Arellano: “It would be helpful if you would stop interrupting” — Becerra to Hilton, pulling something out of the Spencer Pratt playbook in dominating how the conversation is going during the debate and getting kudos from the moderator!
Barabak: Becerra chides Hilton for his continued interruptions. That’s not part of the rules, he says, turning and scolding him in his Dad Voice.
Barabak: Moderator Jake Tapper repeats a litany of Trump lies about California and the integrity of its elections. Hilton vouches for their integrity, then quickly pivots into an attack on smug Democrats who take voters for granted. “Aren’t you tired of that?” he asked.
Arellano: “They take you for granted” — Hilton’s first true line of the night, in a rightful screed about Becerra not agreeing to more than one debate
Arellano: Most of this debate has been fact-checking each other and stats, stats stats. The average voter will sleep with so much of this. The anecdotes have been next to nil. Becerra brought up his parents twice; Hilton mentioned that he visited victims of the Eaton fire earlier this week and claimed that Newsom had been withholding about $2 billion in funds, ignoring Becerra’s allegation that Trump has held back about $30 billion. Gimme personal anecdotes, Californians scream.
Barabak: There. Better.
Barabak: Excuse me, comrades, while I go put on a tie.
Barabak: And Becerra replies, Trump, Trump, Trump.
Barabak: Give Becerra credit. The way he talks, you wouldn’t know Democrats have been in charge in California for years.
“That’s what’s so insulting,” Hilton said, expecting Californians just to keep voting the way they’ve been voting and expect all the state’s problems to be solved.
Chabria: Gustavo, yes! Ban the open shirt, please! It does not send the message men think it is sending.
Chabria: Becerra brings up the price of diesel, which is an underground crisis that is brewing, especially in California. Independent truck drivers are being squeezed because they get paid by the load, regardless of gas prices. In a big state like California, there are a lot of drivers suffering under diesel prices.
Arellano: Hot take: ban male electoral candidates from the open-collar look. From Hilton to Michigan U.S. Senate hopeful Abdul El-Sayed to Santa Ana council aspirant Giovanni Chavez, it’s as thin a macho flex out as tires after a street takeover
Barabak: And… we’re done with climate change. On to homelessness! Sixty minutes doesn’t allow for a lot of deep-diving.
Barabak: Hilton is not climate-change denying, but he’s denying any sacrifice or significant changes would be needed to halt the planet’s continued heating and disasters like California’s abundant wildfires. Would be nice to square that circle. But dubious.
Chabria: And enough of immigration! On to the climate. Hilton says it makes no sense to import oil, which may resonate with me at least, because I just paid $111 dollars to fill my gas tank.
Arellano: “Xavier no se esta dejando,” I tell my Eastside pal. He’s not backing down. “Nope,” my friend said as he downed his Mountain Dew and we both gorged on Sun Chips.
Barabak: Trump, Trump, Trump.
Chabria: Latino voters, even men (who strongly supported Trump) are thinking twice about their support for Trump. I don’t think Hilton’s argument here trying to redirect to Becerra’s HHS time will work. Hilton refuses to say how he would protect immigrants if he were governor, and folks, this is a state of immigrants.
Barabak: When Hilton brings up the controversy over “lost” immigrant kids during Becerra’s reign as Biden’s health and human services secretary, Becerra brushes if off as old news and stale “Trump talking points.” Hilton points out, correctly, it was a New York Times investigation that surfaced the controversy.
Arellano: Becerra began drinking from a CNN-logoed hot cup as Hilton brought up a favorite conservative talking point: that hundreds of thousands of unaccompanied minors disappeared while he was HHS secretary. Becerra took another gulp before calling it a “retread Trump talking points,” with Hilton bringing up the New York Times AND Antonio Villaraigosa to back up his argument — maybe the last time a Trumper will use two liberal lions to beat down a Democrat.
Chabria: “I am not for treating immigrants like animals,” Becerra says. Hilton tries to redirect to Becerra’s record at HHS but I think Californians will hear what Becerra said. “It is good to have a regulated system of immigrants to come into our country, including California, and that’s something that I have always pushed for. It is bad when immigrants are being separated from their children. It’s bad when immigrants are being killed indiscriminately. It’s bad when U.S. citizens are dying through these immigration raids.” Hilton refuses to say the same.
Barabak: Becerra — asked about Trump’s success sealing the border after the leaky policies of President Biden — says he’s for border enforcement, but not violating the Constitution and “not treating immigrants like animals.”
Barabak: Jujitsu move by Hilton: “All you says is Trump, Trump, Trump. That’s an insult to Californians” who want change vs more of the same.
Chabria: “You seem to welcome immigrants who look like you, but deport immigrants who look like me,” Becerra hits at Hilton. “We need to have a governor who will protect everyone who works hard.” Hilton calls it a disgraceful remark. But it’s reality that we are welcoming white South Africans and deporting brown people, and Hilton refuses to acknowledge it.
Barabak: Given an opportunity to repudiate Trump’s heavy-handed immigration enforcement, Hilton declines. Says he wants to “lower the temperature” by deporting criminals, not, say, landscapers and folks running taco stands. Then says it’s liberal Democrats who are keeping that from happening.
Chabria: Gentlemen, lighten up. We thought this was going to be unwatchably boring. Hilton, who as you say, Gustavo, is full of British bluster, is at least pushing answers out of Becerra, who has in fact dodged press for weeks.
Barabak: Refs are letting them play, as they should.
Arellano: See, I see Hilton flopping. He’s British — they’re legends in roasting. He’s roasting with all the grace and wit of Trump. Maybe I would be more forgiving if it was HIS “bitch ass” quote, not that of someone else
Barabak: Fact Check, Anita. She did! https://www.latimes.com/politics/story/2026-05-31/california-governors-race-becerra-attack-from-washington-insiders
Chabria: Honestly, I had such a low bar for how interesting this debate was going to be, and it has come through in both content and information. Hilton is good at roasting. The moderators have been mostly silent.
Chabria: Yes! Hilton says Susan Rice called Becerra a “bitch ass.” I will soon fact-check and make sure Rice really did call Becerra “bitch ass.”
Barabak: I’ve been covering California politics, and political debates, for 40+ years and first time, Gustavo, I can recollect “bitch-ass” coming up in conversation. (Apart from the press gallery)
Arellano: Is this the first mention of “bitch ass” during a California gubernatorial debate?
Barabak: Hilton demands to know how much money Becerra has taken from Big Tech. Becerra parries by noting as attorney general he sued many of Silicon Valley’s giants.
Arellano: First mention of Donald Trump by Becerra — another drinking game my compa and I could play, but I need to keep my liver for a few more decades, so no thanks!
Barabak: “If you listen closely, you’ll hear Donald Trump in that Steve Hilton response” in re AI, Becerra replies. And he’s not wrong.
Chabria: Hilton points out the obvious — this state is economically dependent on the tech industry, especially AI, for our economy. Hilton bobs and weaves on whether he backs Trump and would let companies make their own rules. Becerra attacks — but misses the point. Talking about specific groups that need protection like workers. But the real question is do we force them to stop releasing unsafe models.
Barabak: More explicitly, Hilton is asked by moderator Dana Bash if he seconds President Trump’s plan to let AI companies police themselves. He won’t say.
Barabak: Pressed by Bash in a follow-up, Hilton responds, “We’ll have to see”
Arellano: Becerra is doing something that I always remember Obama doing that I really didn’t see him do during the primary: write on a notepad while his opponent is yammering on. It’s a total power move — instead of grinning and grimacing like Hilton does, Becerra is playing up that Stanford studiousness that has been a hallmark of his career
Chabria: AI! Will it kill us all or save us? Discuss!
Chabria: I think Becerra is saying build. I think the difference is where and how. Hilton is saying build in new places, don’t force density.
Arellano: Becerra goes for the jugular against Hilton by invoking Huntington Beach! As I wrote earlier this year, Hilton kicked off his campaign at the Surf City pier and has tried to channel the momentum of the city’s MAGA super-majority to fuel his campaign. Hilton demanded to know how Becerra had tried to cut the red tape when it comes to housing; Becerra responded that he sued HB over refusing to build affordable housing “and won.” BURN
Barabak: Pressed on how much housing California would build under his administration, Hilton demurred, saying there have been too many “top-down targets” previous governors have failed to meet. He is not wrong.
Arellano: Early ideological divide between Becerra and Hilton on housing: Hilton says build, build, build, Becerra blames the billionaire class for buying up homes as investments and driving up housing value.
Chabria: Hilton suggests building out instead of up because we have “so much space that we could be building in in California.” This is actually a conservative land-use policy that protects single-family homes and suburbs. It’s cloaked language, but a nod to NIMBYs.
Arellano: What a concept by Hilton: build 10 new cities. Um, isn’t that what Eastvale and California City was?
Barabak: “You’re going to end up with Trump results if you follow Hilton’s policies,” Becerra says, and there’s his campaign strategy in a nutshell.
Arellano: I’m deep in the Eastside at my friend’s house, and I suggested we do a drinking game: a shot of mezcal every time Becerra brings up his parents, and a shot every time Hilton does a fake giggle. “I need food in me before we get that drunk,” my friend said. We’re drinking Cactus Cooler instead.
Chabria: “Thank you to CNN for bringing Ha-Vee-Air out of hiding,” quips Hilton, and you know what? Yes, thank you CNN! Please now teach Hilton how to say Xavier.
Barabak: Becerra right away lays down the man o’ the people card, noting his parents came to California with just $12 and prospered. (He’s not running against Tom $teyer, as he was in the Democratic primary, but never hurts to emphathize with working folk.)
Chabria: Becerra in a conservative red tie; Hilton with his trademark unbuttoned shirt. Becerra seems to be drinking coffee. Long day?
Barabak: Starting out, the candidates behind their lecterns. So unclear if they shook hands beforehand.
Barabak: Leading into the debate, dramatic CNN announcer voice tries to hype the stakes. But, let’s face it, Hilton is an exceeding longshot.
Chabria: Let me start things off by saying my hope is that Hilton will push Becerra into specifics around issues including affordability, what we’re going to do about the coming Medicaid cliff, housing and education. California has been focused on raising up our most vulnerable and struggling residents for years — which is important.
But the middle class is suffering now, too, in all those areas. Hilton is right that the status quo isn’t working. That’s going to be a challenge for Becerra when he gets into office (and honestly, he could vacation in Hawaii until November and still get elected), so I’ll be looking for answers on how he plans to lift all boats.
Barabak: There will be much critiquing to come, so let me start by paying both gentleman a compliment.
Hilton has been campaigning hard, as though he has more than the merest speck of a chance of pulling an epic upset and somehow prevailing. Good for him!
And Becerra, who’s made himself exceedingly scarce, is stepping up and debating, as he should. And he’s not being cute about it, insisting on, say, a midnight appearance on local cable TV in Alturas. So props for that.
Arellano: I’m hoping that Becerra will once again channel his inner cholo, as I urged him to during the primary.
The TĂo Xavier persona that Becerra supporters have trotted out — a kind, chuckling sage — isn’t what California needs right now. Becerra knows that the most loved uncles in Latino households aren’t the safe, boring ones but the ones who risked it all: the ones who came into this country without papers, who pulled themselves up by their bootstraps so that their kids could drive hybrids, and who proudly warble “El Rey” during the mariachi portion of the latest family wedding instead of sit quietly at the table.
We need the loco uncle, Xavier, not the fresa — uppity — one.
And I’m hoping Hilton will rebuke Donald Trump. I know, I know: there’s a better chance of England winning the FIFA World Cup than that ever happening.
But if there’s an iota of hope for the British expat to beat Becerra, it can only happen by him showing Californians that he’s willing to stand up to the loathed president instead of cozying up to him.
Otherwise, as a famous Brit once sang backed by sinuous xylophones, “Baby, baby, baby, you’re out of time.”
