Secretary Kennedy Takes Becerra to Task in Epic Takedown of NYT Reporter

In a lengthy and epic response to a New York Times hit piece, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. dismantled the legacy media’s narrative while exposing the failures of his predecessor, Xavier Becerra—now the Democratic frontrunner in California’s gubernatorial race.

Secretary Kennedy’s pointed rebuttal, amplified by journalist Miranda Devine on X, tore into the Times for its preconceived thesis and anonymous sourcing.

A comprehensive demolition of this reporter, the story, the NYT and fake news journalism in general. But the most interesting bit to me are the pungent criticism of Biden's HHS secretary Xavier Becerra, which accords with my interactions with his flaks on the illegal migrant… https://t.co/qyAhn5q4Mo

— Miranda Devine (@mirandadevine) June 11, 2026

He sharply contrasted his own leadership with Becerra’s tenure at HHS.

“His only notable accomplishments here were losing 300,000 children, referred to HHS for custody and care, to human traffickers and drug runners, encouraging transgender surgeries, and disabling the entire program-integrity apparatus, allowing hundreds of billions of dollars of theft from my agency,” Kennedy wrote. “I have set out to find the children Becerra lost. He is now the front-runner for the governor of California.”

Kennedy added that Becerra “reportedly spent most of his term as HHS Secretary in California” and “almost never showed up for work here during his four years in office, Leaving the building largely empty. 

“When the new administration arrived,” Kennedy noted, “there were still artifacts from the first Trump administration in many of our office drawers because no one showed up for work during the Biden years,” 

He compared it to CDC Director Rochelle Walensky spending her entire term in Cambridge.

Becerra advanced from the June 2 top-two primary and will face Republican Steve Hilton in November. The former congressman and California AG has pitched himself as a seasoned fighter with federal experience. But Kennedy’s takedown, backed by years of California Globe reporting, reveals a far different record.

During Becerra’s time at HHS, the Office of Refugee Resettlement lost track of more than 300,000 unaccompanied migrant children. Multiple investigations and our coverage exposed how many ended up in exploitative situations, including labor trafficking. Failures at sites like the Pomona Emergency Intake Site highlighted fake sponsor addresses–including empty fields and abandoned or non-existent houses–and children sent to gang members, human traffickers, and child predators.

At the time we reported:

Apair of whistleblowers who worked at the Pomona site (the federal workers were “seconded” there from other duties and worked with a federal contractor called Cherokee Federal to process the children) testified in front of a United States Senate “roundtable” meeting (it was not technically a hearing – most likely the Democratic majority on the committee did not want it to be “official” in that way).

The tales were harrowing.

Deborah White told the committee she realized something was wrong early on but was stymied by administrators when she brought up any issues with the system.

“These children were not being sent to their parents,” White told the senators. “They were being trafficked.”

Fraudulent documents abounded in the program and officials who were meant to meet face-to-face with sponsors often didn’t bother, White said.

“Children were sent to addresses that were abandoned houses or nonexistent in some cases,” White said. “In Michigan, a child was sent to an open field, even after we reported making a 911 call after hearing someone screaming for help, yet the child was still sent….Please understand, this is nothing less than taxpayer-funded child slavery, sanctioned by the government.”

When she pointed out issues with the sponsors, she was told it was “not her job to investigate” them.

Kennedy has committed to locating those lost children, a direct challenge to the agency Becerra led amid the Biden border surge, overlooked by Border Czar Vice President Kamala Harris.

Kennedy added that Becerra “reportedly spent most of his term as HHS Secretary in California” and “almost never showed up for work here during his four years in office, leaving the building largely empty. 

“When the new administration arrived,” Kennedy noted, “there were still artifacts from the first Trump administration in many of our office drawers because no one showed up for work during the Biden years,” 

Past Globe reporting documented Becerra’s HHS distributing over $22.6 billion in grants, cash assistance, vehicles, housing, and business aid to illegal immigrants, at the expense of American citizens. Kennedy accused Becerra of gutting program-integrity efforts, enabling “hundreds of billions of dollars of theft.”

Becerra struggled to define “woman” during his confirmation hearing and pushed policies supporting taxpayer-funded transgender surgeries and interventions for minors, stances the Globe repeatedly flagged.

As a congressman, Becerra was linked to the Awan Brothers IT scandal. As California AG, he filed over 100 lawsuits against the Trump administration, costing taxpayers millions while championing progressive causes on immigration, healthcare, and climate.

In his gubernatorial campaign, Becerra touts the Affordable Care Act, Medicare negotiations, and COVID management. Yet California faces homelessness, rising costs, population flight, and failing schools.

Secretary Kennedy’s rebuke didn’t just challenge the New York Times. It delivered a timely reminder of Becerra’s record as Californians decide whether to entrust him with the nation’s largest–and most financially dependent–state on the U.S. government for the care and welfare of illegal immigrants and children, the very children that were not “lost” by Xavier Becerra.