Steve Hilton told the California Post that Xavier Becerra needs to be pressed again by the federal authorities about his knowledge of payments to his former chief of staff.
Page A11From§Eachthe breakfast edition — 31 August 2026
New York Post runs corruption pieces on two Democratic officials, one urging an FBI probe, same day.
As it ran on the front
Let's be clear about what happened this morning, because the framing matters more than people want to admit. The New York Post published two separate accountability stories today: one built around a prosecutor's account of conduct inside a state Attorney General's office, and another built around a Fox contributor's public request that the FBI sit a sitting Cabinet secretary down for a second interview about a $225,000 campaign contribution. That is not a coordinated operation. That is a newsroom doing its job on two unrelated Tuesdays that happen to be the same Tuesday — did I say unrelated? Let me back up. They ran the same day, same outlet, same format, both about Democratic officeholders. I don't control the news cycle. I just explain it.
Here's what I'd tell anyone worried this looks like a pattern: a private citizen asking a federal agency to reopen an interview is not an accusation, it's a request. The FBI can say no. They can say nothing, which is what agencies usually do, and which everyone will forget by Thursday. Nobody in either story has been charged with a crime. I want that on the record, because the headline writers didn't put it there, and somebody should. "Blows the whistle" sounds like a verdict. It is not a verdict. It is a sentence fragment attached to a photograph.…
…(cont) I'll grant you the timing is unflattering. Two Democratic officials, one outlet, one morning, zero Republicans in the docket that day — and look, I could tell you that's a coincidence of assignment scheduling, sources going where sources go, but I've read this outlet's back catalog and I'd be lying to you, which I try not to do in this column, mostly.
What I actually believe is simpler than the headlines: an FBI request is not an indictment, a whistleblower account is not a conviction, and a newspaper running two stories in a day is not a special prosecutor. Somewhere between "asked a question" and "abuses of power laid bare" there's a gap the size of due process, and until someone is charged with something, that gap belongs to the readers, not the reporters. I'd stake my job on that. I have, several times.
“Same paper, same day, two different Democrats, zero charges filed — that's not journalism, that's a rotation schedule. They call it accountability when it's aimed left and outrage when it's aimed right; the con isn't in the offices, it's in the assignment desk. Watch what stories don't run twice in a week — subsidies, tax breaks, the stuff that actually costs you money.”
“This is basic accountability journalism, nothing more — the fact that both stories landed the same day is just how the news cycle broke, not a coordinated — okay, it's a little coordinated, but that's called having sources, not having an agenda.”
The receipts
Tish James had proved herself a rancid political hack before Daniel Wiesenfeld blew the whistle; let’s hope she’s soon out of government if not in prison.
This page is a back-issue: the story as it ran, receipts as they were. The current edition is at the front.