Steve Hilton Lands Debate Punches on ‘Bitch *ss’ Xavier Becerra

Hilton went on offense from the start, pressing Becerra on his record as attorney general and as Biden HHS secretary.

Hilton proposed eliminating state income tax on the first $150,000 of income, applying a flat 8% rate above that, and repealing the gas tax. He said, “the quickest way to get more money in people’s pockets is for the government to take less out.”

Becerra immediately labeled it “Trump tax cuts” that would give “the wealthiest Californians a 40% tax break” and claimed it would take money from publicly funded schools and Medi-Cal healthcare. Becerra claimed “the math doesn’t add up.” Hilton answered with an economic fact: that the cuts help both working people and job-creators. When Becerra invoked “the definition of insanity” is doing the same thing over and over, Hilton shot back “like voting Democrat?”

Hilton challenged Becerra to name specific instances of cutting red tape to help the housing shortage. Becerra claimed he made housing more affordable while he was attorney general. But homes in California have never been higher. The median price of an existing single-family home is $901,420 as of August 2026.

Hilton proposed capping government fees at $50,000 per new home, down from the current $200,000,  and proposed building 10 new cities throughout the state, instead of continuing to build existing cities up. Becerra said he would enforce existing laws requiring cities to build their share of housing and cited his lawsuit against Huntington Beach as attorney general.

On cutting red tape, a tone-deaf Becerra pointed to a lawsuit against Huntington Beach, which Hilton said was just more red tape. And he is right. In 2019, Gov. Gavin Newsom singled Huntington Beach out of 50 California cities out of compliance with the state’s affordable housing requirements, because they didn’t have a current/compliant affordable housing element in their general plan, I reported at the time. What’s lost in this mandate is that even if the cities were “in compliance,” there’s no requirement in the legislation to build.

It was Newsom’s first lawsuit after being sworn in as governor against a city, and many said Huntington Beach was targeted because it is a Republican stronghold.

Hilton brought up the Susan Rice comments calling Becerra an “idiot” and “bitch-ass” when he was HHS Secretary during the Biden administration, and accused him of never creating a job in more than three decades in politics.

Hilton ran circles around Becerra. Becerra struggled to answer basic questions about his own record and often replied with questions of his own—as if asking how he would fix California’s housing crisis or lower taxes.

Becerra’s sole tactic was to try to link Hilton to Trump at every opportunity, calling policies “Trump’s taxes,” “Trump’s immigration policy,” etc…

I stopped counting when Becerra named Trump more than a 15 times. Hilton certainly noticed and called Becerra out for this tactic. “All you ever say is ‘Trump, Trump, Trump.’”  It was the predictable Democrat strategy. I just didn’t expect Becerra to be so robotic about it. 

Hilton did a good job keeping the focus on California’s chronic problems California has faced for more than 16 years of Democratic supermajority control.

California’s rebel spirit is being CRUSHED by the same bloated nanny state Xavier Becerra has been a part of for 36 years.

It’s time to try something different!

I’ll throw out the insiders, cut your costs and give you your state back. pic.twitter.com/rRopoyOamW

— Steve Hilton (@SteveHiltonx) October 1, 2026

Becerra looked at the camera and urged voters to send a message to Donald Trump and Steve Hilton by electing him—“for change.”

🤦‍♀️ Change? I noted Becerra has been in politics for more than 35 years.

The other thing I noticed was how many SEIU political ads ran during the debate. That was no coincidence, especially after Becerra claimed he had the support of police, fire, and construction workers. He may have the financial backing of their unions, but I doubt the union members will vote for him.