Xavier Becerra Praised Scientology on Video—Then Used Government Power Against Catholic Groups
Xavier Becerra, a gubernatorial candidate in California, is facing scrutiny over his past praise for the Church of Scientology. Despite his previous support, Becerra's campaign now condemns the organization, citing its history of deception and abuse. As he leads in the polls, this controversy could impact his candidacy.
- ▪Xavier Becerra is currently leading the California gubernatorial race by 19 percentage points.
- ▪In the late 1990s and early 2000s, Becerra publicly defended the Church of Scientology.
- ▪Becerra's campaign now criticizes the Church of Scientology for its alleged abusive practices.
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| Original publisher | RedState |
| Canonical URL | https://redstate.com/jenniferoo/2026/05/18/xavier-becerra-blasted-for-ties-to-scientology-but-targeted-catholics-n2202458 |
| Publication time | Mon, 18 May 2026 19:58:20 -0400 |
| Retrieval time | 2026-05-19T00:04:57.018Z |
| Last seen | 2026-05-19T00:16:44.434Z |
| Headline source | Publisher (no WeSearch rewrite) |
| Excerpt source | publisher body |
| Excerpt method | First ~120 words (~800 chars) of extracted publisher body, fair-use limited. |
| Summary | WeSearch · cerebras-chat (WeSearch summarizer) |
| Summary source text | contentText |
| Citation coverage | Summary is a WeSearch-generated derivative; primary citation is the original publisher URL. |
| Cluster | trs8S-tP3KS6 |
| Cluster logic | Grouped by semantic title/content similarity across sources within a rolling window. Same-publisher template collisions are excluded from coverage comparison. |
| Ranking reason | Story pages are not engagement-ranked. Hub feeds use recency, with optional source-diversified chronological ordering (cap consecutive stories per source). No personalized ranking. |
| Publisher visit | Yes — open original |
| Substitutes article? | No — link-out required for full text |
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| AI summary | May WeSearch generate its own short summary of the article? | Limited |
| Retrieval / RAG | May the content be exposed for third-party retrieval-augmented generation? | Not asserted |
| Model training | May the content be used to train AI models? | Not asserted |
| Commercial reuse | May the content be reused commercially? | Not permitted |
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Opening excerpt (first ~120 words) tap to expand
Xavier Becerra Praised Scientology on Video—Then Used Government Power Against Catholic Groups By Jennifer Oliver O'Connell | 7:58 PM on May 18, 2026 The opinions expressed by contributors are their own and do not necessarily represent the views of RedState.com. AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli, File After California gubernatorial candidate and former Democrat Congressman Eric Swalwell (CA-14) imploded, former Biden Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary and current CA gubernatorial candidate Xavier Becerra's star has been on the rise. A recent Emerson/Inside California Politics Poll shows Democrat Becerra is leading the governor's race at 19 percentage points, just slightly ahead of Republican Steve Hilton and Democrat billionaire Tom Steyer, who both maintain at 17 percentage points.
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