Pelosi pushing Newsom to pick Schiff for next California AG: report

Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) is reportedly lobbying for California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) to appoint House Intelligence Committee Chair Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) as the state’s attorney general after President Biden named Xavier Becerra to be Health and Human Services secretary.

Pelosi and her allies in California politics have urged Newsom to pick Schiff, a House Democrat who served as an impeachment manager during former President Trump’s first Senate trial, who has little in the way of a personal relationship with Newsom, according to The Associated Press, citing a person close to Newsom.

Other people in the mix reportedly include Sacramento Mayor Darrell Steinberg (D), Contra Costa District Attorney Diana Becton and Rick Zbur, head of the LGBTQ rights group Equality California.

Newsom, who has already named former Secretary of State Alex Padilla to replace Vice President Harris in the Senate, has said he will name a new attorney general once Becerra is confirmed. The Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee has yet to announce a hearing date for Becerra’s nomination.

“We hope that happens sooner — I certainly do — [rather] than later,” Newsom said Wednesday of Becerra’s confirmation.

The powerful attorney general position has historically been a springboard for higher state and federal office. Harris herself held it from 2010 to 2016 before her election to the Senate, while Newsom’s predecessor, Jerry Brown (D), held the position from 2007 to 2011 before ascending to governor.

Schiff’s own interest in the position is unclear. During the Trump presidency, the 11-term congressman became one of the administration’s highest-profile antagonists, including his spearheading of impeachment hearings in 2019.

The Hill has reached out to Pelosi’s office for comment.