Former Democratic frontrunner in the race for California governor, former Rep. Katie Porter, unloaded on her rivals Xavier Beccera and Tom Steyer in an explosive CNN interview on Monday. She said “career politician” Xavier Becerra is too risky for Democrats to put up against Republican Steve Hilton in the general election because his former chief of staff has pleaded guilty to corruption charges that are still being investigated. “There’s just too much of a risk there for me, given the stakes of having the potential to have a Republican in charge of California,” Porter said. “The simple fact is, Secretary Becerra cannot promise Californians that he will not be named as a co-conspirator in this corruption charge,” she said. “It was his campaign account. He signed off on it. It was his 25-year chief of staff who was receiving the money via this scheme.” She also accused Tom Steyer of leaking an embarrassing video of her that has essentially defined her campaign’s national profile. “Look, Tom Steyer is a corporate special interest. He’s made his billions off being behooved into corporations, making money off fossil fuel, oil, coal. He is even in this race taking corporate contributions. Even in this race, I am the only candidate who is not,” she said.

KATIE PORTER (D), CALIFORNIA GOVERNOR CANDIDATE: There’s three weeks of voting left. A lot of people haven’t even gotten their ballots yet or they’re just arriving here this week. And look, this question for California is, do we want somebody who spent their career working on making life more affordable for their families? That was my background long before I got into politics, working on credit card debt, families in bankruptcy, helping people who were facing foreclosure or eviction. And when I went to Congress, I stood up to special interests, took pharmaceutical executives to task, for example, for price gouging. The other candidates in this race are a billionaire and a 35-year, 37-year career politician who’s funded by corporations. I’m the candidate here who knows what it’s like to drive a minivan, to push a shopping cart, to worry that your kids are not going to be able to afford to move out and will wind up living on your couch. And that’s a perspective that’s going to drive my laser focus on affordability in a way that I just don’t think a billionaire can. DANA BASH, CNN: Congresswoman, polls are showing support is growing for one of the candidates that you alluded to, the former congressman, state attorney general and HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra. At CNN’s debate earlier this month, some of your fellow competitors pushed him a little bit on the fact that his former chief of staff pleaded guilty to charges related to stealing money from Becerra’s campaign account. Here’s what he said. XAVIER BECERRA (D), CALIFORNIA GOVERNOR CANDIDATE: If you violate the law, you will be prosecuted. No one is above the law. You will be held accountable. If I had been involved, the U.S. attorney would have had me in that indictment. I was not involved. BASH: Is that sufficient? PORTER: It’s not. Look, there’s still an active investigation going on. Two of the three people who were initially implicated are negotiating plea deals. And in those plea deals, they could name Secretary Becerra. I don’t know if they will, but that is a risk. And so, I don’t want to see what happened with Eric Swalwell, what happened with Xavier Becerra. This race is too close. It’s too chaotic. And there’s no reason to take a risk. Look, the simple fact is, Secretary Becerra cannot promise Californians that he will not be named as a co-conspirator in this corruption charge. It was his campaign account. He signed off on it. It was his 25-year chief of staff who was receiving the money via this scheme. There’s just too much of a risk there for me, given the stakes of having the potential to have a Republican in charge of California. We have a top-two primary. If we make the wrong choice here, there is no write-in process. You are stuck with the other top-two candidate, which looks like it’s going to be Republican Steve Hilton. So I do not think that is a risk Californians should be taking. BASH: And just to be clear, he has said multiple times, including at CNN’s debate, that he did nothing wrong. Are you saying that you don’t believe that that’s true? PORTER: He said if someone has broken the law, they should be held accountable, which is a generic statement of truth that I would agree with. He has said at times that he didn’t know about the money. He had no, quote, “no vision” into what was going on. And at other times, he’s admitted that he signed the papers showing that $ 10,000 a month was going out for account maintenance. But he had another campaign account where he was paying $ 1,000 a month for maintenance. Why would you be paying 10 times more? It just raises a lot of questions. I do not have the facts here. But the people who are currently negotiating plea deals in Sacramento do. And if they implicate him, I have zero doubt that he will be indicted. So we just don’t know where this is going. It’s still an open issue. And I think at this point, this close to the end of the race with our top two, with no possibility for a write-in. I think it’s too big of a risk to take. BASH: And to sort of make an analogy to Eric Swalwell, that’s pretty explosive. PORTER: Well, look, a lot of the same people who endorsed and supported Eric Swalwell are now endorsing and supporting Xavier Becerra. And as you know, Dana, there were rumors about Eric Swalwell, and people discounted those rumors. There are rumors about what’s going to happen in this plea deal and how it’s going to unfold, what’s going to happen in this ongoing corruption investigation. And I don’t think that’s a risk worth taking. The conduct, the allegations, the risk, completely different. Eric Swalwell was a sexual predator, full stop, very, very different conduct. But look, the stakes here are about whether Californians should risk having a Republican governor. And for me, the answer is unequivocally no. And the plain truth is, Secretary Becerra cannot and has not guaranteed or promised the people of California that he will not be named as a co-conspirator and indicted. And if he is, and the top two include him and Steve Hilton, we would wind up with a Republican governor. And that, as a mom, as a Democrat, as a woman, is just devastating for Californians. It’s not a risk worth taking. There are other Democrats, of course, in this race and doing relatively well, including Tom Steyer. He just did an interview with Pod Save America, where he said he was the only candidate who could stand up to corporate interests. He was asked specifically, well, what about Katie Porter? This is what he said. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She’s hostile to special interests, but she doesn’t have your money to get ads up, right? That’s a real thing. TOM STEYER (D), CALIFORNIA GOVERNOR CANDIDATE: So the question is, can someone win and do this? That is the actual question, John, not can someone be good hearted? There are lots of good hearted people who I would be happy if they won. The question is, can someone actually do this? BASH: What’s your response to him? PORTER: Well, given that Tom Steyer is the person who leaked the video with me and the staffer from five years ago, he pretty clearly didn’t think that I would — he pretty clearly wanted to be governor bad enough to knock me down to do it. BASH: How do you know that? PORTER: And I apologized for that video many times. Because I am confident that is the case. I’ve been told by many people. It’s a Department of Energy video. It was only held by the Department of Energy and people can follow the trail to who his campaign staffers are and understand what happened there. And the truth is, look, Tom Steyer is a corporate special interest. He’s made his billions off being behooved into corporations, making money off fossil fuel, oil, coal. He is even in this race taking corporate contributions. Even in this race, I am the only candidate who is not. So Tom Steyer is in this race for the same reason he was in the presidential. He’s now spent half a billion dollars trying to get elected. I have no problem with competition. If Tom Steyer wants to run, he should run. But to suggest that somehow he’s in this because there’s nobody else who will stand up to corporate special interests or that he’s not in this for his own ego, I think everybody who’s seen his face plastered over TV for six months knows that’s probably not the case. BASH: Congresswoman, thank you for coming on. I should note that there — we don’t have evidence that Steyer leaked that video of you. If you have it, please bring it. And also, you said some pretty tough stuff about Xavier Becerra. If he wants to come back on the show, he is more than welcome to do that as well.

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