Newsom's Hiatus: What We Know About His Disappearance

CALIFORNIA — Gov. Gavin Newsom reemerged this week after he uncharacteristically disappeared from the public eye for nearly two weeks after abruptly canceling his trip to Scotland to participate in the United Nations climate summit.

His silence spurred rumors and speculation on social media of his whereabouts. Some even surmised that the governor died or had suffered a major reaction to his booster shot on Twitter.

On Tuesday, Newsom dismissed such rumors, maintaining that he simply canceled his trip to go trick-or-treating with his wife and children.

"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 a news conference. "Mom and dad missing Halloween, for them, is worse than Christmas, or missing Christmas.

"And I woke up that next morning with something that's probably familiar to a lot of parents — that knot in your stomach that I had no damn choice, I had to cancel that trip."

Newsom told reporters that he and his family dressed up as a group of pirates.

His hiatus from the public eye comes just months after almost nonstop press conferences and campaigning amid a recall effort that threatened to unseat him and a pandemic that required him to communicate with Californians daily.

"I've been on this damn treadmill. We've gone from crisis to crisis — from wildfires to extreme drought to social justice and unrest," he said.

The governor's last public appearance was Oct. 27, when he received his COVID-19 Moderna booster shot.

His wife, Jennifer Siebel Newsom, decried claims that her husband's absence was tied to the vaccine in a tweet on Sunday that has since been deleted, according to multiple reports.

"It's funny how certain folks can't handle truth," she wrote. "When someone cancels something, maybe they're just in the office working; maybe in their free time they're at home with their family, at their kids' sports matches, or dining out with their wife. Please stop hating and get a life."

On Wednesday, the governor took more questions from reporters about his break from the public sphere. One reporter asked Newsom to comment on claims that he'd suffered a reaction to his booster shot, KCRA reported.

"Yeah well, That's made up," Newsom said. "I had absolutely no impact whatsoever from the COVID shot, nor, from the original or the booster. Absolutely none. No fatigue. Even no soreness."

On Oct. 30, the governor canceled his trip to Scotland citing "family obligations."

"He loves this issue, he cares about it a lot. It's a big deal to him, and I'm sure he desperately wanted to go," Democratic state Sen. Bob Hertzberg said ahead of the summit, according to the Associated Press.

"At some point, as much as we want to be out there in politics, you're a human being," Hertzberg said. "You've got to take care of your family."

Newsom has four children ranging from ages 5 to 12.

The trip to Scotland would have been the first-term governor's most significant international trip thus far.