Ex-Biden HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra hit former Fox News host Steve Hilton with the paternity-themed jab “Donald Trump is his daddy!” as a way to attack the Trump-endorsed candidate.

Seven candidates faced off on CNN Tuesday night at a contentious California gubernatorial debate in a race that was roiled when Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-CA) ended his campaign under a cloud of sexual misconduct allegations, including claims of sexual assault.

Two GOP candidates — Ex-Fox Newser Steve Hilton and Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco — took the stage with five Democrats: former Rep. Katie Porter, billionaire Tom Steyer, former Biden HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra, former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, and San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan.

Moderating the debate were CNN anchors Kaitlan Collins and Elex Michaelson.

The president’s name was invoked a whopping 67 times during the two-hour debate, including Becerra’s shot at Hilton — who refused to respond to what he called “silly name-calling”:

BECERRA: Can I interject on this one. Kaitlan, can I go?

COLLINS: Go ahead, Mr. Becerra, Secretary Becerra?

BECERRA: So I’m the only one who actually has experience taking on Trump and the way he’s handling undocumented immigrants because when he was president the first time, I was the attorney general, and we took him on straight on in court, we stopped him from trying to force local law enforcement to do the bidding of ICE. We were able to make sure we protected the DACA program for our Dreamers all the way to the Supreme Court, and we beat Donald Trump.

What we have to do is make sure that Trump cannot invade California, and you can’t stop him if you’ve got a governor like Steve Hilton, who is his dad. Donald Trump is his daddy, and he will protect him all the way through.

COLLINS: Thank you, Secretary Becerra.

Mr. Hilton, I’ll let you respond to that.

And I have a question for you, Mr. Steyer, after that.

HILTON: I don’t want to respond to silly name-calling, but I’d like to actually respond to something Katie said.

Watch above via CNN.

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