Newsom picked Halloween with kids over trip to UN
SACRAMENTO » Gov. Gavin Newsom said he chose to take his children trick or treating on Halloween instead of discussing climate change with world leaders in Scotland, explaining the decision to abruptly cancel his trip and then recede from public view for nearly two weeks was driven by the simple desire of a working parent to spend more time with his kids.
Newsom’s comments, delivered Tuesday at an economic summit in Monterey, came after increasing media coverage and criticism from Republicans about his whereabouts and what he was doing. His last public event had been Oct. 27 when he got a coronavirus booster shot and then two days later his office issued a brief statement saying he was canceling his travel plans for unspecific “family obligations.”
His staff would not answer questions about where he was or what he was doing for much of that time. However, photos over the weekend published in Vogue showed Newsom attending the wedding of Ivy Love Getty, the granddaughter of the late billionaire oil tycoon J. Paul Getty whose family members have been major donors to Newsom’s campaigns.
By Monday, Newsom’s absence had prompted speculation about his health, mostly among conservatives on social media who rallied around the hashtag #wheresgavin. Newsom’s wife, Jennifer Siebel Newsom, added to the intrigue on Sunday night with a since-deleted tweet telling people to “please stop hating and get a life.”
But Tuesday, Newsom said his absence was nothing more than a chance to recharge with his family after a frenetic three years in office that included an unprecedented pandemic, record-breaking destruction from wildfires, a drought and fighting for his political life in only the second gubernatorial recall election in state history. Newsom beat back the recall in September and then spent the next several weeks considering hundreds of bills passed by the Legislature.
Climate change is a signature issue for Newsom, who many believe has aspirations of running for president some day. Attending the conference would have given him the opportunity to tout his climate change initiatives, which include banning sales of new gas-powered cars and trucks by 2035 and raise his profile with world leaders.
But as the trip neared, his children took the initiative.
“I’ve been on this damn treadmill, we’ve gone from crisis to crisis,” Newsom said. “The kids, literally, they kind of had an intervention. They said they couldn’t believe that I was going to miss Halloween.”
Newsom said for his kids, who range in age from 5 to 12, missing Halloween is worse than missing Christmas. “I had no damn choice; I had to cancel that trip,” he said.
Newsom’s comments earned applause from the audience and praise from his fellow Democrats in the state Legislature, many of whom blamed the governor’s political opponents and the media for blowing the story out of proportion.
Assemblyman Ash Kalra tweeted that had Newsom attended the conference, he would have been criticized “for traveling overseas instead of staying home attending to the state.”
“He just can’t win,” Kalra said.