He sued President Donald Trump 123 times. Now he’s joining Joe Biden’s administration

By the time Donald Trump exited the White House on Wednesday, California Attorney General Xavier Becerra had sued the former president’s administration 123 times.

Becerra filed nine alone on Trump’s final full day in office, bringing a climactic end to a four-year run in which California battled the White House on immigration, the Census, military spending and more.

Now the 62-year-old Sacramento native is preparing to head to Washington, D.C. to serve as President Joe Biden’s Health and Human Services secretary.

It’s a bittersweet moment for Becerra, who previously served 12 terms in Congress representing a Los Angeles district before then-Gov. Jerry Brown tapped him to lead the department in 2017 following now Vice President Kamala Harris’ move to the Senate.

The lawsuits served as an opportunity for Becerra to position liberal California as a barrier to Trump’s agenda, and to make a name for himself as the Golden State’s highest law enforcement officer.

He insists they were worth the time and cost, adding up to at least $43 million.

“We have by far won most of these cases,” Becerra said. “What I can tell you is that the victories overwhelm any outcomes that were not in California’s favor.”

While the dozens of legal challenges are a source of pride for Becerra, he said it’s an agency full of talented attorneys and a list of projects underway that make leaving the Department of Justice a bit wistful.

“We have so many things on the burner,” Becerra said in an interview with The Sacramento Bee. “I am not looking forward to not getting to do the work as attorney general. Had (the president) not asked me to do this job as HHS secretary at a momentous time, we’d be getting on all cylinders at the AG’s office continuing to move forward.”

Republicans call him a radical

Becerra faces a tough Senate confirmation before he can officially join the Biden administration. A slim Democratic majority in the chamber means the vote will likely be tight, especially since Republicans have lambasted Biden’s appointment of a “radical” like Becerra.

Arkansas Sen. Tom Cotton, for example, called Becerra in a recent Fox News opinion piece an abortion extremist and a member of the “open-borders wing of his party.”

In a Dec. 7 statement, Sen. Mike Braun, R-Ind., said he had “serious concerns” over Becerra taking donations from the “big health care industry” and his 100% approval rating from Planned Parenthood.

But assuming he’ll be confirmed, Becerra will take on the role steering an agency through one of the most tumultuous public health crises in history.

As of Jan. 23, per data from The COVID Tracking Project, the country was recording more than 3,000 coronavirus deaths per day. Nearly every state has bungled vaccination rollout plans. Americans are “pandemic-fatigued,” which makes encouraging mitigation measures like social distancing and mask wearing even more challenging in a country that’s villainized public health officials.

But those are future tasks for the outgoing attorney general.

On the Saturday before Biden’s inauguration, Becerra said he was focused on the California Department of Justice. He’s proud of a group of new enforcement divisions the agency created to focus on worker rights, disability discrimination, medical fraud and elder abuse.

Two other new efforts include teams focused on environmental justice for low-income communities of color, and a health care access section charged with defending the Affordable Care Act during the Trump era.

Becerra’s team delivered oral arguments in the latest Affordable Care Act case on Nov. 10, but the case doesn’t have to be decided until June.

“If we have a victory in the Supreme Court soon, it will be basically because of this team that so many millions of Americans continue to have access to good healthcare,” Becerra said.

Where California Democrats wanted more

Although Republican leaders view him as liberal, Becerra as attorney general disappointed advocates for law enforcement reforms on several occasions.

Becerra was criticized last year for withholding immediate support for Assembly Bill 1506, a new law that tasks the department with handling certain independent investigations into deadly force incidents. The attorney general had argued that his agency lacked the resources to take on the anticipated workload.

Becerra also declined to independently investigate the June 2 deadly shooting by Vallejo police officer of Sean Monterrosa. His office instead agreed to review the department’s practices and investigate allegations of destroyed evidence.

The agency similarly analyzed the Sacramento Police Department’s policies after the death of Stephon Clark in 2018, and recommended nearly 50 changes in its January 2019 report. But his office found that criminal charges couldn’t be pursued, a decision that disappointed activists who urged prosecution against the officers who shot and killed Clark while he was in his grandmother’s backyard.

“There are probably some people who wish he had stepped up more on police shootings,” said Democratic strategist Andrew Acosta. “He didn’t lead the charge on police shootings and reform. He got pulled along as it was moving.”

On Friday, Becerra announced an investigation into whether the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department had “engaged in a pattern or practice of unconstitutional policing.”

“We put out a series of policing reforms,” Becerra said, dismissing allegations of a timid approach to improving law enforcement in California.

“It’d be hard for me to tell you that I feel like we haven’t done enough,” he continued. “I feel very good. And I’d like to see anyone who is able to lift their head as high as we can in the work we’ve done.”

Despite the debate, Acosta said Becerra’s time as attorney general has been a net positive for California, especially during the “very bizarre” Trump era.

“You could fill reams of paper with the accomplishments he did, and a Post-it Note with the criticisms,” Acosta said. “Taking on the Trump administration, protecting the environment, women’s right to choose, immigration, a host of issues that Democrats care about that Donald Trump wanted to undo and Becerra was leading the charge to protect.”

This story was originally published January 25, 2021 at 5:00 AM.