Newsom Claims He Cancelled Trip to Climate Summit Because Kids Wanted Him Home for Halloween

Newsom said for his kids, who range in age from 5 to 12, missing Halloween is worse than missing Christmas. “I had to cancel that trip,” he insisted.

Democratic California Governor Gavin Newsom explained Tuesday in his first appearance since abruptly cancelling his plans to travel to the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Glasgow, Scotland, last week that his children wanted him home for Halloween.

During a live-streamed conversation at the California Economic Summit Tuesday, Newsom said his children staged "an intervention" over dinner a few nights before his scheduled trip, and called for him to remain at home, according to Politico.

“I was ready to go, and 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 reportedly said.

“I woke up that next morning with something probably familiar to a lot of parents, that knot in your stomach, that I had no damn choice.

Though the California governor initially defended the decision to attend the conference, he ultimately changed his mind after giving it much thought.

Initially, Newsom did not publicly acknowledge his reason behind canceling his trip prior to Tuesday, Politico noted, citing only “family obligations."

His sudden withdrawal from the climate conference brought rebuke from multiple political figures that were not in favor of his absence.

“A governor’s absence is always a matter of public concern. That’s especially true for a governor claiming sole authority to control people’s lives through a ‘State of Emergency,’” California State Assemblyman Kevin Kiley, a Republican, tweeted. Others shared their concern through a viral hashtag detailing #wheresgavin.

California State Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez was among Democrats who defended Newsom, thanking him for being “open” with the struggles that parents face.

Thank you @GavinNewsom for being open with the struggle so many of us face between the demands we face as elected officials and our responsibilities to our families. As an Elected Mom, I feel this. Every day. pic.twitter.com/FHHAwfqweG

— Lorena Gonzalez Fletcher (@LorenaSGonzalez) November 10, 2021

Kiley fired back with another tweet making it clear that “no one is criticizing Newsom for spending time with his kids. They're criticizing him for falling off the map after denying millions of parents the right to make choices for their own kids.”