Early voting is underway in the closely watched California gubernatorial primary where Republican Steve Hilton maintains a narrow lead in the RealClearPolitics polling average and former state attorney general and Biden official Xavier Becerra has surged into second place following scandal-scarred Congressman Eric Swalwell dropping out of the race.
In the Golden State’s open primary system, the top two vote-getters, regardless of party affiliation, advance to the November general election. One of the reasons Hilton has been leading for virtually the entire campaign is because the Dems have presented a fumbling and fractured front with no one establishing themselves as the clear frontrunner.
While Becerra has enjoyed a late surge, radical billionaire Tom Steyer and controversial former Rep. Katie Porter are still hoping for a miracle. But the trio can’t seem to get out of their own way as evidenced by all the infighting and downright bizarre behavior with press.
On Thursday’s show, Megyn was joined by Ana Kasparian, host and producer of The Young Turks, to discuss the sloppy spiraling and what it means for the race.
Porter vs. Steyer
Despite a new campaign ad trying to make light of the situation, Porter has never really been able to give a coherent response to questions about her temperament after she threatened to end an interview because she didn’t like the questions, got caught berating a staffer in a resurfaced video, and was accused by her ex-husband of dumping scalding mash potatoes in his head.
The issue of the infamous July 2021 video showing Porter snapping “get out of my fucking shot” at a staffer during a virtual interview came up once again when the former congresswoman was on CNN’s Inside Politics Monday.
Host Dana Bash asked Porter to respond to comments Steyer had recently made about the viability of her candidacy compared to his. “Well, given that Tom Steyer is the person who leaked the video with me and the staffer from five years ago, he pretty clearly wanted to be governor bad enough to knock me down to do it,” Porter alleged.
When Bash asked why she thinks Steyer was behind the leak, Porter pointed to his connections at the Department of Energy (DOE). “I am confident that is the case. I’ve been told by many people,” she responded. “It’s a Department of Energy video; it was only held by the Department of Energy; and people can follow the trail to who his campaign staffers are and understand what happened there.”
At the end of the segment, Bash ‘fact-checked’ Porter. “I should note that we don’t have evidence that Steyer leaked that video of you,” the anchor said. “If you have it, please bring it.”
Steyer’s campaign, meanwhile, issued an interesting rebuttal to Porter’s claim. “Tom has nothing to do with that video,” campaign spokesperson Sepi Esfahlani said. “This is an attempt from Katie Porter to deflect from her past mistakes. Katie Porter only has one person to blame for her standing in the race, and it’s herself.”
But Megyn wasn’t so sure that statement would put the rumors to rest. “I must tell you, [that] is a non-denial denial. ‘Tom has nothing to do with that video’ could be absolutely true, and yet he may have leaked it,” she said. “Of course, he has nothing to do with the actual video. He’s not in the video. He didn’t touch the video. He wasn’t responsible for it leaking from the Department of Energy, necessarily. But he might have received it and leaked it.”
What “most likely” happened, in her view, was the video was leaked from the DOE via a staffer so Steyer could keep his hands clean. “I think he did it, and we did look [into] his staff. We could not find evidence that current staffers of his gubernatorial campaign worked at the DOE. However, we did find that a 2025 hire out of one of his companies did indeed come from DOE,” Megyn noted. “So, it is not true that they have no DOE people working for Steyer.”
Becerra vs. Dems
But it’s not just Porter and Steyer beating each other up. Newly minted Dem frontrunner Becerra made a complete fool of himself during an interview with KTLA on Tuesday.
With cameras rolling, Becerra bizarrely attempted to set ground rules with reporter Annie Rose Ramos, who has been interviewing all of the leading candidates in similar fashion. “By the way, this is a profile piece, this is not a gotcha piece, right?” Becerra asked Ramos before she asked her first question.
“Look, I think these questions are fair. It’s in order to learn about you as a candidate… I don’t know how you define ‘profile,’ but I’d like to begin the interview,” Ramos replied.
“The way I describe ‘profile’ is you talk about all the things that I’ve done, things I want to do, and along with some tough questions,” Becerra continued. “But not only tough questions.”
The awkward exchange has made the rounds and led to criticisms of the former Biden Health and Human Services secretary from within the tent. Xochitl Hinojosa, who worked at the DOJ during the Biden administration, did not pull any punches when discussing Becerra’s qualifications on CNN this week.
“Whoever is going to be governor will have his hand up to Donald Trump. Can I tell you, after working in Joe Biden’s administration, I do not trust Xavier Becerra to do that,” she said.
When host Abby Phillip asked for clarification, Hinojosa took it a step further. “I do not think he will be able to stand up to Trump and lead,” she said. “Because when I saw him in the administration – and I think a lot of people did, it’s, it’s, people understand this – he was not effective in governing. And I think that a lot of people in the Biden administration are talking about this because they realize that he was not an effective HHS secretary. And if you ask any cabinet secretary, they would tell you the same thing.”
Kasparian, who lives in California, said she doesn’t know what to make of Hinojosa’s claims, but she herself has not found Becerra impressive. “It seems like she has a favorite that maybe she’s looking to promote. Who knows,” she said. “But I wasn’t impressed, personally, by his debate performance. He served in the Biden administration – I didn’t see anything standout that was worthy of praise, to be honest with you.”
She believes Becerra’s candidacy reflects a larger issue with politics today. “I think that we are currently dealing with a political system where these politicians think this is how it’s supposed to work. I rise up, I pay my dues, I start low, and then I work my way to a gubernatorial position in the country without proving a damn thing about my accomplishments,” Kasparian added. “That’s a huge problem. No, you’re not entitled to that.”
Even so, with the primary set for June 2, he very well may be on his way to being the next governor of California. “It looks like people are going to go for him based on how he is doing in the polling,” Kasparian concluded. “It’s kind of surprising. Like, I couldn’t tell you what Xavier Becerra is proposing to do to make California a better state, and that’s a problem.”
You can check out Megyn’s full interview with Kasparian by tuning in to episode 1,317 on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you like to listen. And don’t forget that you can catch The Megyn Kelly Show live on SiriusXM’s The Megyn Kelly Channel (channel 111) weekdays from 12pm to 2pm ET.