California Democratic gubernatorial candidate Antonio Villaraigosa accused former Vice President Kamala Harris, one of his possible competitors in the governor’s race, of being involved in a “systematic cover-up” to conceal former President Joe Biden’s cognitive decline from the public eye.
Villaraigosa is running for governor during the 2026 elections after spending decades building political capital in the Golden State, including holding titles as the mayor of Los Angeles, the speaker of the California Assembly, and the 2018 Democratic runner-up for governor. Xavier Becerra, who was health and human services secretary during Biden’s time in office, has already announced he will challenge Villaraigosa ahead of the state’s Democratic primary. The Los Angeles mayor could also face a challenge from Harris, who has yet to rule out a gubernatorial run in her home state.
On Tuesday, Villaraigosa focused his gaze on taking down Becerra and Harris, who was a heartbeat away from Biden as his vice president for four years. In response to a new book detailing the extent of Biden’s descent into apparent dementia while in the White House, the former Los Angeles mayor suggested the pair had been complicit in covering up the former president’s decline from voters. “Why didn’t either of them speak out?” he questioned in comments to the Los Angeles Times.
“Voters deserve to know the truth. This cover-up directly led to a second Donald Trump term — and as a result, all Californians are paying the price,” Villaraigosa continued in a post to X on Wednesday.
“Now, we have come to learn this cover-up includes two prominent California politicians who served as California attorney general — one who is running for governor and another who is thinking about running for governor,” he added in a statement to the outlet. “What did Kamala Harris and Xavier Becerra know, when did they know it, and most importantly, why didn’t either of them speak out?”
“At the highest levels of our government, those in power were intentionally complicit or told outright lies in a systematic cover-up to keep Joe Biden’s mental decline from the public,” Villaraigosa warned. “Kamala Harris and Xavier Becerra took an oath of office and were entrusted to protect the American people, but instead Kamala Harris repeatedly said there was nothing wrong with Biden, and Becerra turned a blind eye.”
Villaraigosa’s attacks on Harris and Becerra solidify Democrats’ fears that people closely aligned with Biden who defended the former president against concerns about his mental acuity could be dragged down by new revelations detailing the extent of his decline. Those points are outlined most recently in CNN anchor Jake Tapper and Axios’s Alex Thompson’s book, Original Sin: President Biden’s Decline, Its Cover-Up, and His Disastrous Choice to Run Again.
“Democrats testing the water may not have been forced to answer Biden health questions in the past, but they certainly will now,” a national Democrat involved with major fundraising efforts told the Washington Examiner on Wednesday.
BIDEN’S CANCER DIAGNOSIS FUELS FRESH DOUBTS AND DISTRUST AMONG DEMOCRATS
As of February, Harris stood ready to sweep aside challengers in a hypothetical Democratic primary, according to a survey from Emerson College Polling.
Of Democrats surveyed, 57% of primary voters would vote for Harris in a hypothetical election. Nearly a fifth, 17%, remained undecided in the poll, which showed former Rep. Katie Porter trailing Harris at 9%. Porter announced her campaign in April, likely giving her a boost. The poll handed Villaraigosa 4% support, with 17% of voters undecided.