Former U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra, one of the top Democrats running for California governor, on Friday blasted USC and the ABC affiliate in Los Angeles for hosting a debate that he argues purposely excludes all candidates of color.

Becerra said he and the other candidates were excluded from the televised debate unfairly, a decision that he said “smells of election rigging” in a hotly contested race less than three months before the June primary.

“My father used to tell me of the days when he would encounter signs posted outside establishments that read ‘No Dogs, Negroes or Mexicans Allowed,’” Becerra wrote in a public letter to USC President Beong-Soo Kim. “USC’s actions may not seem so transparent. But, you have deliberately chosen to selectively filter the voters’ view of the field of gubernatorial candidates in what all observers characterize as a wide-open race.”

The university said in a statement that it authorized a political expert to create the formula to determine who would be included in the debate.

“At the request of the Center for the Political Future, Dr. Christian Grose, Professor of Political Science and International Relations, independently established the methodology that determined eligibility for the debate,” according to a statement from the center. “No one in the USC administration had any role in developing, reviewing or approving those criteria.”

The center later said in a statement on Friday that it reiterated the criteria that determined which candidates were invited to participate in the debate, and that nothing had changed since the forum was first planned.

The criteria for gubernatorial candidates to participate considered opinion polling and campaign fund raising. Six candidates were asked to participate in the March 24 debate, which is cosponsored by ABC7 Los Angeles and Univision.

There was conflicting information about USC’s stated criteria, however. The methodology says that the fundraising totals considered were based on semi-annual reports campaigns filed with the California Secretary of State’s office. However, the document later says that the fundraising figures also includes large donations that campaigns are required to immediately report.

This is a critical difference, because San José Mayor Matt Mahan did not enter the race until late January, and thus far has not been required to file any semi-annual fundraising disclosures with the state. However, he has received significant donations since he entered the race.

Mahan agreed with Becerra, saying that he ought to be part of public forums about who will lead the state.

“The former Secretary is absolutely correct, he should be included in the debate,” Mahan said in a statement. “His long record of service to California has earned him a place on every debate stage in this campaign for Governor.”

USC officials said they are clarifying how they selected candidates to participate in the race.

“We are reissuing the criteria to make clear that they include current fundraising totals, including semi-annual and late reports, which were always part of the formula,” the Center for the Political Future said in a statement. “We are not changing the criteria. We have updated even as of today and the rank order includes the same top 6 candidates.”

Grose said that the selection of candidates was based upon polling and fundraising numbers, and that the sentence about semi-annual fundraising reports was inaccurate.

“It was just a wording issue. It’s not a methodology issue,” he said.

Six candidates are scheduled to appear at the debate: Republicans Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco and conservative commentator Steve Hilton; and Democrats Northern California Rep. Eric Swalwell, former Orange County Rep. Katie Porter, billionaire hedge-fund founder Tom Steyer and Mahan.

The kerfuffle occurs after Democratic candidates of color accused state party leaders of trying to oust them from the race in favor of white candidates, who have more support in opinion polls.

In addition to Becerra, other prominent Democratic candidates excluded from the debate include former state Controller Betty Yee, state Supt. of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond and former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, who also condemned the candidate-selection formula.

“Californians deserve a fair process, and voters deserve to hear from all qualified voices,” Villaraigosa, who taught public policy at USC for three years after leaving office, said in a statement. “But this biased and bigoted action by USC to manipulate the data to exclude every qualified Black, Latino, and API candidate in favor of a less qualified white candidate is shameful.”

Becerra said USC went to great lengths to justify the candidates that were excluded, but the bias was clear.

“You can’t escape the detestable outcome: you disqualified all of the candidates of color from participating while you invited a white candidate who has NEVER polled higher than some of the candidates of color, including me,” he said.

Becerra was clearly referring to Mahan, who recently entered the race and has received millions of dollars of support from Silicon Valley leaders. Becerra noted that veteran GOP strategist Mike Murphy, co-director of the USC Center for the Political Future, which is a sponsor of the debate, is assisting an independent expenditure committee backing Mahan.

Murphy said he had recused himself from anything involved in the debate, and that he was a volunteer for the outside group backing Mahan. If he becomes a paid advisor to the independent expenditure committee, he said he has requested unpaid leave from the university through the June 2 primary.

“I’ve been transparent that I’m personally a Mahan supporter,” Murphy said. “I’ve had zero to do with the debate.”

War Secretary Pete Hegseth has announced a task force to evaluate senior service colleges to ensure they are not tainted by woke ideology and offer quality education.

“Professional Military Education should produce warfighters and leaders—not wokesters,” he asserted in a post on X.

“That’s why we are establishing a Task Force to evaluate our Senior Service Colleges and ensure the focus is where it belongs. No distractions. Just warfighting,” the post adds.

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Hegseth’s post includes a video message in which he said, “I’m directing the undersecretary of war for personnel and readiness to establish a task force effective immediately.”

“The mission of that task force is to evaluate our senior service colleges, where we educate our own: Think places like the Army War College, or National Defense University, the Naval War College, Marine Corps University or the Air War College, where our senior officers go to continue their education,” he explained.

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He indicated that the War Department will “make sure that what we’ve seen in our civilian institutions never surface in our military education institutions. Trust me. I’ve heard the stories. I know some of our own senior service colleges … have similar courses and similar ideologies. We need to rip ‘em out. And we’re going to. This task force will have 90 days to assess whether our Senior Service Colleges … are actually effective.”

“And if we’re pulling officers out of civilian universities because they’re too woke, then we better make sure our own universities are prepared to do the task properly,” he said.

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Hegseth’s message came as the U.S. continues waging war against the Islamic Republic of Iran in conjunction with Israel.

MEXICO CITY — Cuba has begun direct talks with the United States in an effort to solve “bilateral differences” between the two countries, Cuban President Miguel Díaz Canel said Friday.

The comments, broadcast nationwide in Cuba, are the first confirmation of bilateral talks between the Trump administration and Cuban government. The U.S. and Cuban governments have been fierce adversaries for almost 70 years, since Fidel Castro’s revolution toppled the U.S.-backed dictator Fulgencio Batista.

What exactly the talks are about remains unclear, but the Trump administration — which has choked off oil supplies to the island, triggering a severe energy crisis — has been insisting that Cuba’s communist government must change.

Díaz Canel’s comments were deliberately vague, but clearly indicated that the nation’s energy-driven crisis — and President Trump’s insistence on a change — had brought Havana to the table. He insisted that the “sovereignty and self-determination” of Cuba would be respected.

“The aim of these talks is, in the first place, to identify which are the bilateral problems that need a solution,” Diaz Canel said. “And, on the other hand, find solutions for those problems that have been identified.”

From the perspective of Trump, the principal bilateral “problem” is an entrenched communist bureaucracy that has not adjusted to the modern era.

Cuban officials have long blamed the more than 60-year U.S. trade embargo for its economic woes.

The Cuban announcement comes 13 days after the U.S. attacked Iran and two months after U.S. forces, deployed by Trump, deposed Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, a longtime Cuban ally, and brought him to New York to face drug trafficking charges.

Speculation about a political transition in Havana has centered on a Venezuela-type scenario in which leadership viewed as antagonistic to Washington is somehow sidelined in favor of a Trump-friendly replacement.

Many Cuba-watchers have wondered who among the leadership could possibly emerge as kind of Delcy Rodriguez, the acting president of Venezuela. She has been following Trump’s dictates since the U.S. special forces raid on Caracas captured Maduro and his wife.

Rumors of direct talks between Cuba and the United States have been circulating for months, but neither Washington nor Havana had confirmed the talks until now.

On Tuesday, the Cuban ambassador to the United States, Lianys Torres Rivera, told The Times that the Cuban government was “ready to engage with the U.S. on the issues that are important for the bilateral relations, and to talk about those in which we have differences.”

Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, the son of Cuban immigrants, have been insistent that the current government must change.

“It may be a friendly takeover, it may not be a friendly takeover,” Trump told Latin American leaders gathered in Florida on Monday.

“It wouldn’t matter because they’re down to, as they say, fumes. They have no energy. They have no money. They’re in deep trouble,” Trump said.

Trump responded to the Cuban leader’s willingness to negotiate on Friday morning by amplifying a news article with the headline: “Cuba confirms talks with Trump officials, raising hopes for US deal.” He posted that on his Truth Social account.

Rolling blackouts, shortages of food and medicine, a lack of gasoline and other shortfalls have become everyday occurrences on the island, home to 10 million. Images of uncollected garbage rotting on Havana’s streets have been broadcast across the globe. A lack of jet fuel has bludgeoned the critical tourism sector.

“The status quo is unsustainable,” Rubio said last month. “Cuba needs to change… And it doesn’t have to be change all at once. It doesn’t have to change from one day to the next.”

In his 90-minute address, Díaz Canel said that discussions with Washington were based on “respect for the political systems of both countries, sovereignty and our government’s self-determination,” suggesting that from Cuba’s perspective, sweeping political changes in the Communist country were not being considered.

Michel Fernandez Perez, vice director of the Florida-based NGO Cuba Proxima, which pushes for democratic change in Cuba, said he believes leaders in Havana will agree to economic and other changes if it allows them to maintain some degree of political power.

Fernandez said most Cuban Americans are hoping for a full democratic transition in Cuba, where a range of political parties would be able to compete in elections, as well as a free market transformation.

But he said his group, at least, would support less sweeping changes as long as they improved the lives of people living on the island.

“If it means that Cubans live in less misery and have more opportunity, we would support that,” he said.

It is impossible to say what will happen in the negotiations, he said, because Trump is so unpredictable.

“It’s hard to predict what the United States wants or will achieve,” he said. “The [Trump] government is not guided by principals or laws, but the whims of the president and his personal desires and interests.”

McDonnell and Linthicum reported from Mexico City and Ceballos from Washington. Special correspondent Cecilia Sánchez Vidal in Mexico City contributed to this report.