Newsom says he bagged Scotland trip to trick or treat with kids
Cancellation spawned questions and rumors that dogged the governor for more than a week.
By John Woolfolk, Bay Area News Group.
Gov. Gavin Newsom, in his first public appearance in almost two weeks during which questions swirled over his sudden cancellation of a trip to Scotland for a climate conference, said Tuesday he backed out so he could celebrate Halloween and trick-or-treat with his four kids.
“I had that dinner — a lot of you know this dinner with the family — and the kids literally, they kind of had an intervention, they said, they couldn’t believe that I was going to miss Halloween,” Newsom said at the 2021 California Economic Summit. “I woke up that next morning with something that’s probably familiar to a lot of parents, that knot in your stomach, and I had no damn choice, I had to cancel that trip.”
Newsom said he’d been “on this damn treadmill,” going “from crisis to crisis” through as COVID-19 cases surged, wildfires burned and political opponents sought to recall him from office in a September vote. So he decided to spend more time with his four kids, ages 5-12, instead of jetting off to Europe to talk about one of his pet issues.
Newsom says he bagged Scotland trip to trick or treat with kids
“I was a pirate — we all were pirates this year,” Newsom said. “Not only did I get that costume, not only did I go trick-or-treating, I was able bring the kids to work last week.”
Newsom said he and his kids took selfie pictures with the bear in the Capitol rotunda. He took them to the Boo Fest soccer tournament in Sacramento. He spent the last two weeks focusing on the upcoming budget, a proposal for which he must deliver a proposal in January, and on troubling signs that COVID-19 cases are trending upward in the state and around the country, which he called “my biggest anxiety.”
He didn’t mention that he also attended a Getty heir’s posh wedding in San Francisco last Saturday.
But it was time well spent, the governor added.
“It’s been probably the most productive week I’ve had since I’ve been governor,” Newsom said.
Newsom at California Economic Forum
Newsom’s office originally explained his climate conference trip cancellation only as due to “family obligations.” But when the governor remained out of sight even amid events like the approval of COVID-19 vaccines for kids ages 5-11, social media began to speculate.
Perhaps the governor had a bad reaction to his COVID-19 booster shot, which he got at his last public appearance nearly two weeks ago, wondered some lawmakers and vaccine skeptics on Twitter, where #wheresgavin and #wheresgavinnewsom began trending.
Newsom said Tuesday that “we’d all do well taking some time away from social media.”
“I cannot impress you more to get that booster shot,” Newsom continued. “It’s safe, it’ll save your life. Literally, the flu shot is what I’m sore about, not the booster shot.”
Newsom touted the Golden State’s economic prowess at Tuesday’s event.
“California has no peers,” the Democratic governor said, arguing the state is doing better economically than the large Republican-led states of Texas and Florida, and is aggressively tackling one of its biggest problems of affordability with measures aimed at spurring housing production. “We are world beating in terms of our economic growth.”
But Newsom voiced caution about what he expects to be a winter COVID-19 surge as cases creep upward in California.
“We cannot spike the ball,” Newsom said. “I don’t want to tell you that because I don’t want it to be true, but the data bears it out. You’re going to start seeing it here in California. It’s nothing to panic about, just something to be mindful of.”
