WATCH: Steve Hilton Buries Former Biden HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra with a Devastating Reminder During Heated California Gubernatorial Debate

California GOP gubernatorial nominee Steve Hilton buried his Democratic opponent, Xavier Becerra, during a heated debate on CNN on September 30. Credit: CNN screenshot

CNN might be rethinking its decision to host a California gubernatorial debate after GOP nominee Steve Hilton completely dismantled his Democrat opponent, Xavier Becerra, onstage.

As The New York Post reported, Hilton and Becerra squared off in their first and perhaps only debate last night as the Democrat holds a wide lead in the polls.

The two men clashed repeatedly over a variety of topics, including taxes, immigration, housing, and artificial intelligence, for an hour. Unsurprisingly, immigration was the subject that perhaps generated the most lively exchange.

After Becerra spouted his talking points on ‘immigration reform’ and took a cheap shot at Hilton, the Republican dropped the hammer with a brutal reminder about Becerra’s past job as HHS Secretary under Joe Biden.

Hilton slammed Becerra for letting almost half a million unaccompanied migrant children disappear into the hands of child sex and labor traffickers over the course of his four years ‘in charge.’ Over 100,000 of these kids are still missing today.

Hilton went on to rip Becerra for not apologizing to America, but instead lecturing him about immigration.

Becerra then tried to flip the tables on Hilton by whining about Trump, but Hilton quickly swatted the attempt aside by citing a surprising source to support his arguments: The New York Times.

WATCH:

This was a total SMACKDOWN.

Far-left Democrat Xavier Becerra just got completely EXPOSED by Republican Steve Hilton for losing track of hundreds of thousands of migrant children during his time as HHS Secretary.

Becerra just stood there looking nervous as Hilton laid it all… pic.twitter.com/1jcSLhEcjH

— Overton (@overton_news) October 1, 2026

BECERRA: What we should do is have an immigration reform (policy) that will allow us to decide who stays and who goes. But Steve thinks it’s perfectly fine to let ICE mercenaries come into California, and he welcomes them even though our state laws require that ICE follow federal law.

HILTON: I cannot believe that you’re standing there trying to make these arguments.

When you were HHS Secretary, you were responsible for 479,000 unaccompanied migrant children and for their welfare in camps that you ran.

You sent them because you dismantled the vetting that should have made sure that they were with a safe, protective family or sponsor.

You sent thousands of young children directly into the clutches of child sex and labor traffickers; hundreds of thousands of children that you were responsible for are still missing today.

100,000 of them are under ten years old.

I CANNOT believe that you have not apologized…You stand here lecturing people about immigration when you treated these most vulnerable people in this way?

BECERRA: Those retread Trump talking points…

HILTON: It was the New York Times — and they won a Pulitzer Prize for it.

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