Xavier Becerras excruciating interview sees him stumble over basic questions, gets name wrong in painful watch

California’s likely future governor Xavier Becerra continued his streak of awkward moments with the press — stumbling over a fundraising question and botching the name of a Dem ally in an excruciating interview with a San Francisco news outlet.The Democratic frontrunner, who has a considerable lead over his Republican rival Steve Hilton, was pressed by the San Francisco Standard’s comedy correspondent Sophia Garrow on some key details of his campaign.In the new interview, Garrow asked Becerra if there are any companies he wouldn’t accept money from — alluding to criticism that the former HHS secretary took huge checks from Big Oil and other special interests during the gubernatorial primary campaign.

“Sure,” Becerra responded.What followed was an agonizing pause, then a small laugh.“Such as?” Garrow followed up.“Name some,” Becerra replied.

The longtime California Dem said he wouldn’t accept money from Palantir, which has reportedly provided data analytics software and other technology to Immigration and Customs Enforcement.He said he’d be okay with defense contractor Lockheed Martin, however.There was a back-and-forth about Purdue Pharma, as Becerra shared he had sued the company for allegedly causing the opioid crisis as attorney general.“But would you accept money from them?” Garrow asked.He answered: “I mean if it’s a legitimate business and they’re doing business in a way that isn’t destroying lives — ““But they sparked the opioid crisis,” she noted.“I mean, that’s why you go to jail, if you commit a crime, and you served your time, you get to come out.

That doesn’t mean for the rest of your life,” he later said, adding he believed in “redemption” for bad companies.During the primary race, Becerra caught heat from Democratic rivals for accepting huge corporate donations from the likes of Chevron, which gave his campaign a max contribution of $39,200.To the dismay of environmentalists, the former AG d...