A 2022 interview with Jennifer Siebel Newsom, wife of California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D), is drawing fresh attention online after the state's first partner declared that evangelicals are dragging America backward. The clip, from a conversation with journalist Elex Michaelson when he was working at a local Los Angeles station, captures Siebel Newsom in a remarkably candid moment of contempt for tens of millions of American Christians.
The interview centered on her documentary "Fair Play," based on Eve Rodsky's book of the same name. But Siebel Newsom steered the conversation into far more revealing territory.
"They're living in this silo, this evangelical, conservative silo that, ultimately, is just pulling us back as a country to a time and a place where we don't deserve to be, and we're not going to be."
She followed that with a line that reads like a parody of progressive bumper stickers:
"Because honestly, young women and fathers of daughters are awake now, and they're woke, and they're not going to let us go back."
Awake and woke. Delivered without a trace of irony.
Siebel Newsom didn't stop at dismissing evangelicals. According to Fox News, she also attempted to commandeer the language of the pro-life movement itself, a move that has become standard practice in progressive circles where words mean whatever is politically convenient at the moment.
"I appreciate that so many people, so many progressives, are leaning into redefining what pro-life is really about, and that's what we're doing in California."
Her redefinition was expansive. "Pro-life," she explained, "is about prenatal care and universal preschool and universal after-school and universal healthcare and taking care of foster kids and feeding, you know, universal meals and childcare." Then the kicker: "Like, that's pro-life. It's not conception."
This is a familiar sleight of hand. Strip a term of its actual meaning, load it with your preferred policy agenda, and then act mystified when the people who coined the term object. The pro-life movement exists precisely because it holds that life begins at conception. Telling pro-lifers their own label doesn't mean what they think it means is not a serious argument. It's a branding exercise dressed up as moral philosophy.
And notice the assumption baked into every item on her list: universal preschool, universal healthcare, universal meals. The only entity capable of delivering all those universals is the government. The quiet part of "redefining pro-life" is redefining it as a mandate for unlimited state spending. California's record on delivering those services efficiently is, to put it charitably, not the selling point she thinks it is.
The resurfaced clip isn't the only recent moment putting Siebel Newsom in the spotlight. She drew attention last month after criticizing reporters during an event tied to a bill her husband signed into law, providing funding for Planned Parenthood.
She complained that the assembled press corps wasn't asking enough questions about the subject she wanted to discuss. She opened with a curious word choice:
"We just find it incredulous that we have Planned Parenthood here, and women are 51% of the population."
The word she was reaching for was "incredible." "Incredulous" means skeptical, not unbelievable. A minor point, perhaps, but notable from someone who positions herself as an authority on what language should mean.
She then escalated, telling reporters they were part of the problem:
"You wonder why we have such a horrific war on women in this country and that these guys are getting away with it. Because you don't seem to care."
She capped the lecture with a line that managed to be both condescending and passive-aggressive: "So, I just offer that with love. Ask about what we're here for today, don't you think?"
This is what happens when someone has spent years surrounded by people who agree with them. The press showed up. They asked questions. The questions just weren't the right ones, which in Sacramento apparently qualifies as evidence of a "war on women."
What makes the resurfaced clip worth examining isn't that a progressive Californian said something dismissive about evangelicals. That's hardly news. It's the specificity and comfort of the contempt.
Siebel Newsom didn't critique a policy. She didn't challenge a piece of legislation. She described an entire religious community as a "silo" pulling America backward, then declared their influence a temporary obstacle that woke young people would overcome. This is the language of cultural supremacy, delivered with the breezy confidence of someone who has never had to answer for it.
Evangelicals make up a significant share of the American population. They volunteer at higher rates, donate more to charity, and anchor communities across the country. Dismissing them as relics clinging to "a time and a place where we don't deserve to be" isn't progressive. It's elitist. And it reveals more about the person speaking than the people being spoken about.
Fox News Digital reached out to Siebel Newsom and her representatives for comment. The silence, so far, speaks for itself.
California's first partner expressed "so much hope" about the state's "huge responsibility to lead." If this is what California's leadership class sounds like in candid moments, the rest of the country can be forgiven for declining to follow.
