Report: Gavin Newsom Left Blizzard Emergency for Baja California

California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) reportedly left the state during the blizzard emergency for a personal trip to Baja California, according to a spokesperson quoted by San Francisco Chronicle‘s Emily Hoevan.

It was not immediately clear where Newsom had gone, though he has previously vacationed in Cabo San Lucas.

Newsom belatedly declared a state of emergency last Wednesday, as Breitbart News reported — a week after the storms swept the state, trapping thousands of residents and visitors in California’s mountain communities.

He then left California, apparently on Thursday, before returning around midday on Sunday. He later claimed to have been working “today” on Sunday, though a photo of his watch showed him working during the evening.

While Newsom was away, communities continued to struggle with shortages of food, fuel, and medicine. The California National Guard troops that Newsom had mobilized failed to reach several mountain communities.

Newsom has drawn criticism for previous vacations. In 2022, Newsom vacationed in Montana despite a state ban on travel to socially conservative jurisdictions; he used state-provided security in defiance of the state ban.

In 2021, Newsom extended California’s state of emergency for coronavirus, then spent Thanksgiving at a villa in Cabo San Lucas that he had rented from a Russian oligarch who had previously pleaded guilty to tax fraud.

In 2020, Newsom dined with lobbyists at the exclusive French Laundry restaurant in Napa Valley after telling Californians not to go to restaurants during the coronavirus pandemic. That triggered a failed recall effort.

Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of the new biography, Rhoda: ‘Comrade Kadalie, You Are Out of Order’. He is also the author of the recent e-book, Neither Free nor Fair: The 2020 U.S. Presidential Election. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.