That was a weird way to start an interview.
Democratic frontrunner for California governor, Xavier Beccera, pressed a TV reporter to make sure she was not doing a “gotcha piece” on him — or ready to ask too many “tough questions” — immediately after the cameras started rolling.
Becerra made the uncomfortable request during his interview with KTLA 5 reporter Annie Rose Ramos in Los Angeles on Tuesday morning.
“By the way, this is a profile piece, this is not a gotcha piece, right?” Beccera wanted to make sure.
“Well, look, these questions are fair. It’s in order to learn about you as a candidate,” Ramos told him.
“The line is about the profile,” Beccera countered.
“I don’t know how you define profile, but I’d like to begin the interview,” Ramos said.
“The way I describe profile is, you talk about all the things that I’ve done, things I want to do — along with some tough questions,” Becerra said. “But not only tough questions.”
It was a bizarre way to begin, and there was another awkward — or funny, depending on your point of view — moment a few minutes later.
Ramos asked Becerra about his time serving as HHS Secretary under President Joe Biden from 2021 to 2025. She pointed to a 2023 report that said the HHS could not find 85,000 children who had been brought into the USA and were supposed to be monitored by the department.
Becerra said that was not accurate and questioned if Ramos “got those talking points from Donald Trump.”
“It’s from a New York Times article,” Ramos told him.
Becerra protested “that’s not what the New York Times article said” — as the KTLA 5 broadcast highlighted the specific section of the report that Ramos just mentioned.
His interview with KTLA 5 comes as several polls have Becerra as the favorite to replace Gavin Newsom as California’s next governor.
Ramos was asked about Becerra’s “gotcha piece” comment after the interview by the KTLA morning anchors. She admitted she was “caught off guard” by it, and said nothing like that happened in her other interviews with candidates like Tom Steyer (D) and Chad Bianco (R).
Watch above.
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