California AG pick pledges affront to Trump
Becerra said to perhaps be ‘the most prominent Latino politician in the country’
SACRAMENTO (AP) – The longtime Democratic congressman slated to become California’s next attorney general immediately took a combative stance against Republican President-elect Donald Trump’s incoming administration after being named to the post Thursday, promising to defend the state’s liberal stances on recreational marijuana, climate change, health care, immigration and criminal justice.
“If you want to take on a forward-leaning state that is prepared to defend its rights and interests, then come at us,” U.S. Rep. Xavier Becerra said hours after he was appointed by Gov. Jerry Brown.
Becerra, 58, said he was “stunned” to be selected by the Democratic governor to succeed newly elected U.S. Sen. Kamala Harris. But he said he pledged during his telephone interview with the governor to build on some of the issues that Brown hopes to preserve as part of his record when he is termed out of office in two years.
That includes keeping California “the clean energy superpower of the country,” protecting otherwise law-abiding immigrants even if they are in the country illegally, and building on Brown’s changes that reduce mass prison incarceration, Becerra said. He also will seek to protect the state’s broad implementation of President Barack Obama’s health care law that Trump has pledged to unwind.
“We’re always ahead of the rest of the pack, and we should be prepared to defend that,” Becerra told reporters on a conference call.
Brown emphasized in appointing Becerra that he expects him to “help our state aggressively combat climate change,” an area where the governor has been critical of Trump and the Republican-led Congress.
Becerra’s selection reshuffles the Latino power structure in the nation’s most populous state and nationally. As Democratic caucus chairman, Becerra is the highest ranking Latino in Congress, where he has served since 1992.
“Becerra might now be the most prominent Latino politician in the country, particularly when it comes to the debate over immigration policy,” said Dan Schnur, director of the Jesse M. Unruh Institute of Politics the University of Southern California.
“Jerry Brown has declared war on Washington, D.C., and he’s appointed Xavier Becerra to lead that fight,” Schnur said. But rather than choose a radical bomb-thrower, Schnur said Brown wisely chose a Washington veteran “who’s going to lead a forceful resistance but not an obnoxious one.”
Becerra is a rising star in the party who served as a high-profile Latino surrogate for Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton’s campaign this year. He was widely discussed as a potential cabinet appointee if Clinton won.
He now lives in Los Angeles but recalled growing up in Sacramento as a son of poor, hard-working immigrants. He noted he was the first in his family to graduate from college, obtaining both bachelor of arts and law degrees from Stanford University, and said his goal is to offer the same opportunities to others.