White House officials throw Xavier Becerra under the bus

The blame game is underway in Washington, D.C., as President Joe Biden’s approval ratings continue to crater. His consistent bright spot in the polls had been public approval of his handling of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Last March, Pew Research reported that 65% of U.S. adults were confident in the president’s ability to “handle the public health impact of the coronavirus outbreak.” By the end of January, that number had fallen to 44%. Even among Democrats, the percentage of Americans expressing confidence in the president’s handling of the pandemic fell from 92% in March to 69% now.

For a president who campaigned on a promise to defeat the virus, this is a political problem as much as a public health concern. So perhaps it’s no surprise that the administration ran a finger down the phone list until they came to a person with “Health” in his title.

That would be Secretary of Health and Human Services Xavier Becerra, the former attorney general of California.

Appointed to the cabinet post despite no experience in health-care administration, Becerra is now the subject of blind quotes in the Washington Post, which conducted interviews with “28 senior administration officials, health agency officials, outside advisers and experts, most of whom spoke on the condition of anonymity to detail sensitive discussions.”

One “senior administration official” said Becerra “is taking too passive a role in what may be the most defining challenge to the administration.”

On the record, the White House expresses confidence in Becerra. That and four dollars will buy you a cup of coffee.

The administration has struggled in its handling of the pandemic on many fronts, criticized in particular for data collection, securing needed testing and medical supplies, and messaging coordination between agencies. A report from the Government Accountability Office in January cited “persistent deficiencies” in the Health and Human Services department’s response to the pandemic.

But the GAO report also concluded that HHS has had similar problems handling public health emergencies going back as far as 2007. That suggests that the president might have fared better if he had appointed someone with experience in running an agency responsible for public health to head up a $1.5 trillion health bureaucracy.

Tensions between Becerra and the White House date back at least as far as May, when HHS was made responsible for the care of more than 21,000 migrant children. Becerra argued for a cautious approach and for maintaining a lower cap on refugee admissions. That didn’t sit well with some administration officials.

If Becerra was ousted, it would likely trigger a backlash from Latino activists who supported his nomination. But that may not matter.

Once the poll numbers fall, somebody’s head is going to roll.