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Ninety million dollars for Planned Parenthood. That was the headline in Sacramento. But the real story wasn’t the funding. It was the moment when the governor’s wife stepped in mid-press conference to scold reporters for not asking about abortion. Apparently, the problem wasn’t the policy. It was the questions.
When the questions drifted to high-speed rail and foreign meetings, Jennifer Siebel Newsom tapped her husband on the shoulder and took the microphone.
The “First Partner,” as she prefers to be called. I’ll just call her Gavin Newsom’s wife, took it upon herself to reprimanded the press for failing to focus on what she believed mattered. She wanted to talk about a war on women and baby killing, of course.
If the governor can’t manage a routine press conference without supervision, that says more than she probably intended.
Journalist TORCHES Gavin Newsom’s wife for trying to dictate what questions journalists are going to ask pic.twitter.com/yO6D45dcJj
— Ian Miles Cheong (@ianmiles) February 12, 2026
The $90 million came after California lawmakers passed emergency legislation to replace federal funding reduced under President Trump’s latest bill. Newsome framed it as California stepping in to protect women’s rights. That was the purpose of the event. It was supposed to be a message moment for the Governor.
Instead, it became a correction.
The optics are hard to ignore. A governor with national ambitions. Gavin Newsom had a captive audience for his carefully framed policy victory. A room full of cameras, and Gavin’s wife decided the tone was not acceptable. I guess since most of the journalists in the room were women, Gavin’s wife felt she needed to reset the room for them, that the press needed direction.
Why?
Did she think he wasn’t strong enough? Not forceful enough? Not delivering the outrage correctly?
Presidents do not get shoulder taps when the Q&A drifts. Presidents answer the question. Or they deflect it. Or they control the room themselves. They do not require supervision. Although one could argue a case for Biden.
But perhaps the bigger issue is what she demanded. She said reporters weren’t asking about what they were there for. Fine. She wants questions about abortions? Okay.
Governor, how many unborn children will ninety million dollars fund the termination of?
Governor, what is the projected number of procedures attached to this emergency allocation?
Governor, what is the cost per life?
Governor, if this is an emergency, whose lives count?
Were those the questions she had in mind? Or were the reporters supposed to ask how proud he felt? How historic the moment was that now they have the money to kill babies?
If you hold a press conference about abortion funding, scrutiny comes with it. You do not get to declare it sacred ground and then accuse the journalists of waging war when they fail to applaud on cue.
Which brings us to the phrase that hung over the entire exchange: A “horrific war on women.”
This is a serious charge. It used to mean something.
Now it apparently includes reporters asking about trains.
Meanwhile, the same political movement cannot define the word “woman” and uses terms like birthing person, non-men, menstruators, people with uteruses, or gestational parent. They’ll tie themselves in knots not to say Woman – an adult human female.
The same movement insist on biological men belong in women’s locker rooms and on women’s sports teams. The same movement dismisses female athletes who object. The same movement tells women in prison to adjust and comply. So, who exactly is at war with women?
The inflation is exhausting.
At the end of the day, reporters asked about other issues because that is what reporters do when they finally get access to a governor, and that alone was enough to justify the wifey-pooh stepping in to correct the tone. The room simply refused to revolve around one talking point.
And that was apparently too much.
If this is the caliber of pressure that requires reinforcement, it raises a fair question about durability. Governing is not scripted. National politics is not polite. Presidential debates do not come with mid-event rescue missions.
Yet here we are, watching a governor with bigger ambitions needing backup because the conversation wandered.
If a friendly press conference in Sacramento demands interventions, one has to wonder how the larger stage would go.
The ninety million dollars may have been the headline. But the shoulder tap is what people will remember.
Feature Image: Gavin Newsom/Stop Abortion Now account on X, widely used on social media/Pax Ahimsa Gethen, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons/edited in Canva Pro
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