From the American Thinker website.
https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2026/05/california_gubernatorial_candidate_xavier_becerra_orders_ktla_reporter_to_do_a_puff_piece_on_him_station_responds_by_releasing_video_of_it.htmlCalifornia gubernatorial candidate Xavier Becerra orders KTLA reporter to do a puff piece on him; station responds by releasing video of it
He's quite the jerk when he thinks he's off camera.
Monica Showalter | May 12, 2026
When's a reporter not a reporter, just a public relations adjunct of an incompetent, scandal-ridden, Democrat?
When Xavier Becerra, Democrat frontrunner in the California gubernatorial race by default after Eric Swalwell's embarrassing exit, is around.
Get a load of this disgusting exchange, attempting to intimidate a KTLA reporter into producing a puff piece about him:
Awkward moment kicks off KTLA interview with Xavier Becerra. @CaliforniaICP Full report:
https://t.co/UcMXzidzrf pic.twitter.com/OViYkfTg3t
— KTLA (@KTLA) May 12, 2026
He's trying to come off as a mafia boss, which isn't inconsistent with what insiders have said about him, yet he's also quite the smug, self-satisfied, twerpy little jerk, trying to scare the very calm, professional, KTLA reporter into writing a flattering 'profile' as he calls it, about him. What he meant, of course, was puff piece.
Here's the Grok transcript, telling the reporter how to do her job:
Reporter: "With Xavier Becerra in Highland Park."
Becerra: "By the way, this is a profile piece, this is not a gotcha piece, right?"
Interviewer: "Well, look, I think these questions are fair. It's in order to learn about you as a candidate.
Becerra: "So long as it's about the profile."
Interviewer: "I don't know how you define it, but I'd like to begin the interview."
Becerra: "The way I describe a profile is you talk about all the things that I've done, things I want to do, and along with some tough questions. But not only tough questions."
Notice the ease with which he issues his instructions, as if he's been doing that for a long, long, time out in Sacramento and the Washington swamp, during his long, long career as a California attorney general, a congressman and a Health and Human Services secretary the great migrant surgee of Joe Biden, where he 'lost' 85,000 unaccompanied children brought into the U.S. as illegals, mismanaged the COVID response, and ran a waste-and-fraud-filled department full of empty buildings. He's telling the reporter how he wants her to write her story about him because that's what he always does, everyone else up until KTLA served as an obedient lapdog.
The news station, which is one of Los Angeles's biggest and most influential and definitely not part of those two scenes, was apparently so disgusted by his jackass behavior it must have realized that it had news on its hands, and being newsmen, reported the news to the public as rather useful to the public in assessing this candidate's worth.
I've seen Becerra before, in action, over the years as a member of the press, and know that this wasn't an off day for him, this was him as he always is.
Is a candidate who insists on strictly puff piece coverage, the same way Kim Jong Il does, really the guy who plans to govern California well?
Or does he have a few things he's going to want to hide?
An outtake like this can only serve to alert voters to how wretched, arrogant, and incompetent he is. This is as good an argument against early voting as any out there, because voters need to see Becerra as he really is before they cast their ballots. KTLA has done a public service in releasing this video.
