A former senior adviser to President Joe Biden is pushing back against Republican Steve Hilton’s use of her reported profane criticism of Xavier Becerra as a campaign weapon, saying she supports the Democratic candidate despite previously calling him a “bitch-ass.”
Susan Rice, the former diplomat and Biden White House domestic policy director, issued an angry statement Friday on X declaring her support for Becerra in California’s gubernatorial race.
“Make no mistake, I support [Xavier Becerra],” Rice wrote while tagging Hilton. “So stop using my name against him.”
Hilton raised the insult during Tuesday’s CNN debate and launched a website, “Bitch-ass Becerra,” designed to revive questions about Becerra’s performance in the Biden administration, where he served as secretary of Health and Human Services.
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According to a former White House source previously quoted by The California Post, Rice reprimanded Becerra in front of staff “at least once a week” over his handling of the child migrant crisis that intensified during his tenure. Staff members were also reportedly angered by remarks in which Becerra referred to migrant children as “little Juanitos and Juanitas.”
Axios reported in 2024 that Rice, who had worked with Becerra while he was California’s attorney general, called him both an “idiot” and a “bitch-ass.”
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“I do not think he is qualified to be the governor,” another former Becerra colleague told The Post. “I don’t think he’s qualified to be the boss of anything.”
Rice’s Friday statement signaled that her position on Becerra has since changed.
Hilton’s website, hosted at bitchassbecerra.com, shows Becerra in a jacket covered with corporate and labor-union logos, including those of Chevron, Pacific Gas & Electric and the California Teachers Association.
“Chaos. Fraud. Child trafficking. Gender extremism. Higher costs for you,” the site declares. “Empty Suit Becerra stood by and did nothing. He enabled it all.”
Criticism from Becerra’s former Biden administration colleagues has followed his campaign since the Democratic primary, when rival candidates repeatedly highlighted it. Former Biden official Xochitl Hinojosa drew particular attention during a CNN appearance in May with her assessment of Becerra’s record.
“I don’t think that he will be able to stand up to Trump and lead,” Hinojosa said.
“He was not effective in governing. He was not an effective HHS secretary. And if you ask any cabinet secretary, they would tell you the same thing.”
A Becerra campaign spokesperson has rejected the former colleagues’ attacks, dismissing them as “jealousy.”
