Susan Rice, a top advisor to President Joe Biden, posted a furious statement on X on Friday, saying she supports Xavier Becerra for California governor. She also told Steve Hilton to stop using her name against him.
Rice tagged Hilton in her post, writing: “Make no mistake, I support [Xavier Becerra]. So stop using my name against him.” The exchange comes after Hilton used the phrase “bitch-ass” during Tuesday’s CNN debate and set up a website titled “Bitch-ass Becerra.”
The Website’s Case Against Becerra
Hilton’s website, bitchassbecerra.com, depicts Becerra wearing a jacket with corporate and union logos, including Chevron, Pacific Gas & Electric and the California Teachers Association. The site reads: “Chaos. Fraud. Child trafficking. Gender extremism. Higher costs for you. Empty Suit Becerra stood by and did nothing. He enabled it all.”
The site’s argument covers several charges:
- Chaos, fraud and child trafficking
- Gender extremism
- Higher costs for Californians
- Becerra’s failure to act on any of them
Hilton’s framing treats Becerra as a figure who enabled problems rather than addressed them.
What Rice Said About Becerra
A former White House source told The California Post that Rice berated Becerra in front of staff “at least once a week” over his handling of a child migrant crisis that exploded under his watch. Staff were appalled over Becerra’s callous remarks about migrant children, calling them “little Juanitos and Juanitas.”
Rice labeled Becerra an “idiot” as well as a “bitch-ass,” Axios reported in 2024. That report puts the insult in context: Rice used both words to describe the same person.
Another Becerra ex-colleague told The Post: “I do not think he is qualified to be the governor. I don’t think he’s qualified to be the boss of anything.”
Other Critics From Inside
Former Biden administration official Xochitl Hinojosa criticized Becerra during a CNN appearance in May, saying: “I don’t think that he will be able to stand up to Trump and lead.”
Hinojosa added: “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.”
The two criticisms share a common thread. Neither focuses on policy disagreements or political strategy. Both question Becerra’s competence and his ability to manage the job.
The Campaign’s Response
A spokesperson for the Becerra campaign has dismissed former colleagues’ criticism as “jealousy.”
Where This Leaves Becerra
Becerra is running for governor of California. His opponents are using the insults against him as evidence of his weakness. Hilton’s website turns those insults into a public record of what insiders said about him.
Rice has made her position clear. She supports Becerra, and she wants the insults to stop. Whether her support is enough to silence the critics remains to be seen.
“Make no mistake, I support [Xavier Becerra]. So stop using my name against him.”
Where the paper stands
The paper backs Steve Hilton and is against Susan Rice’s demand that he stop using her name as part of his campaign against Becerra. The paper’s position is simple: smaller government and less control over people’s lives. Power that gathers in one place gets abused. In this case, Hilton is using a name that came from inside Becerra’s own orbit, and the paper sees no reason to stop him.
What makes this story fit the paper’s position is the irony at its core. Rice called Becerra an “idiot” and a “bitch-ass” while he served under her — words she now wants silenced. The paper finds that hypocrisy worth noting, and it wants the public to see it too.
The paper would want readers to watch for officials who change their tune when their words come back to haunt them. A demand that a critic stop using a name they themselves used is a sign of power trying to protect itself, and the paper is against that kind of power.
Source material: “Joe Biden advisor rages over resurfaced ‘b—- a–’ remark about Xavier Becerra,” the New York Post.
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