Sasse: Becerra ‘Hell of a Lot More Dangerous’ than Neera Tanden
Republican Sen. Ben Sasse on Thursday slammed Xavier Becerra, President Joe Biden’s nominee for Health and Human Services secretary, as being “a hell of a lot more dangerous” to the country than Neera Tanden, the president’s pick for director of the Office of Management and Budget.
“Ron Klain and Chuck Schumer know that Xavier Becerra is a wolf who can’t be dressed in sheep’s clothing, so they’re using Neera Tanden as a decoy,” Sasse told National Review. “While the beltway talks endlessly about which senators got mean tweets from a lefty activist, a wannabe tyrant with a nasty record of attacking the First Amendment is going to quietly become the leader of the federal government’s largest agency. Becerra has shown nothing but contempt for free speech and religious liberty — he’s a hell of a lot more dangerous than Tanden.”
Even before Becerra’s hearing, eleven Senate Republicans wrote to Biden calling on him to withdraw the nomination. “We write to express our grave concerns regarding the nomination of California Attorney General Xavier Becerra to serve as the next Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS),” the letter read. “Mr. Becerra’s lack of healthcare experience, enthusiasm for replacing private health insurance with government-run Medicare-for-all, and embrace of radical policies on immigration, abortion, and religious liberty, render him unfit for any position of public trust, and especially for HHS Secretary.”
The Conservative Action Project and the Conservative Partnership Institute added in an open letter that Becerra “is an extremist nominee who will carry the agendas of liberal dark money groups to his administration post if confirmed.”
Wednesday during his Senate confirmation hearing, Becerra refused to state whether or not he supported any restriction whatsoever on abortions, including those intended to end the life of babies with a prenatal disability diagnosis of Down syndrome or partial-birth abortions. “Is there any line you would draw?” pressed Rep. Steve Daines. “Is there just one – just one restriction that relates to abortion that you might support?” Becerra would not say. That says it all.