Elder
© ScreenshotCandidate for Governor of California Larry Elder
Los Angeles Times columnist Jean Guerrero said on Sunday that California Republican gubernatorial candidate Larry Elder poses a "very real threat to communities of color."

Guerrero appeared on CNN's Reliable Sources to speak about the September 14 California governor recall election. Host Brian Stelter questioned Guerrero about Elder, the Republican frontrunner who has faced intense criticism from the Los Angeles Times and other media outlets in the past.

Stelter asked whether Elder is acting on a "Trump playbook" in the state to avoid the often negative media coverage of him. Guerrero agreed, claiming that Elder has only appeared and spoken with right-wing media pundits.

Guerrero said:
"He's refused to talk to non-partisan media outlets and to journalists who are critical of him, has refused to answer difficult questions, often uses the few interviews that he does give as an opportunity to give a performance on social media, denouncing those journalists, playing the victim."
Elder mocked an older Los Angeles Times article titled "Column: Larry Elder is the Black face of white supremacy. You've been warned." Guerrero criticized Elder for "refusing to engage" with the substance of the criticism.
"He has been able to reach the minority of voters in California who embrace his white supremacist worldview. He's co-opted this line by my fellow columnist from the headline calling him 'the Black face of White supremacy' but he refuses to engage with the actual substance of our reporting."
Guerrero further added that Elder, a black man,
"poses a very real threat to communities of color. You know, the idea that his views were shaped by a well-known White supremacist named Jared Taylor who he repeatedly quoted in early writings, that he plans to reverse all the state's progress on immigrant rights and social justice and that he poses a very real threat to communities of color for all of the reasons we've reported in the past."
"Clearly, the LA Times opinion folks have been very much against Elder," Stelter commented.

Elder slammed the LA Times coverage of his campaign.
"This is not the first time the L.A. Times has attacked me, there is another writer who all but called me a Black David Duke. They are scared to death."