If Kamala Harris is elected president of the United States next month, her husband will receive the unprecedented title of ‘First Gentleman’.
Yet I can hardly think of a less appropriate way to describe Doug Emhoff, who, if he were married to almost anyone else on the planet, could be condemned as an alleged #MeToo monster.
In August, the Daily Mail revealed how Emhoff cheated on his first wife in 2009 with their daughter’s nanny, who was also a teacher at her private school. The Mail also reported that Emhoff allegedly impregnated her, which led to the end of his first marriage and the nanny losing her teaching job in the process.
No one from the Harris campaign, the Emhoff camp or the sitter’s inner circle denied any part of the story. Emhoff has now admitted to the affair.
If Kamala Harris is elected president of the United States next month, her husband will receive the unprecedented title of ‘First Gentleman’. Yet I can hardly think of a less fitting way to describe Doug Emhoff.
Earlier this month, the Mail dropped another bombshell: Emhoff once allegedly punched an ex-girlfriend in the face so hard in public that she turned away. The claim was corroborated by three friends of the alleged victim, who say she told them the punch happened while she was waiting in line at an event during the 2012 Cannes Film Festival in France, about two years before Emhoff met Harris married.
An unnamed representative for Emhoff has said the report is “false” and that “any suggestion of it” [Emhoff] would or would ever hit a woman is not true.”
On Thursday, Emhoff’s ex-girlfriend spoke exclusively to the Mail and insisted that her story is indeed true.
“Doug got out [valet] line, comes forward, turns me by my right shoulder. “I’m completely overwhelmed, I’m not bracing myself, I’m wearing four-inch heels, a long dress and it’s between 2 and 3 in the morning,” the woman, identified only as “Jane” in the video, claimed. report. “He hits me so hard that I turn around, and I’m in total shock,” she added. “That’s when his mask fell off and I saw his dark side.”
As a survivor of rape and domestic violence, I find these allegations extremely abhorrent.
The Mail’s stories about Emhoff’s alleged violence threatened to open the floodgates, as colleagues at his former law firm claimed he had been “inappropriate” and “misogynistic” at work and had allegedly punished female employees who were flirting did not reciprocate.
The Mail also revealed a 2019 lawsuit alleging that Emhoff – while engaged to Harris – hired an “unqualified” part-time model as a legal secretary “because she was young, attractive and friendly to the powerful men in the office.”
Emhoff recently appeared on MSNBC and dismissed stories about his personal life as a “distraction.” Interviewer Joe Scarborough didn’t even ask if the claims were true – only if they had been annoying to our potential First Gentleman.
It is all the more incredible that Emhoff was described (weeks after news of his infidelity broke) by Washington Post columnist Catherine Rampell as a “modern sex symbol” because, she pointed out, he is “confident enough in his own masculinity om sometimes prioritizes his wife’s ambitions over his own’ – a reference, of course, to his current wife.
‘What. A. Hunk,” concluded the breathless Rampell, who was happy to dismiss the babysitting affair as a simple “past marital drama.”
What’s going on here?
Rather than being the male “feminist” that some on the left like to imagine, Emhoff is in fact a prime example of exactly what the #MeToo movement is fighting against: a wealthy, influential man who has allegedly exploited the power imbalance of relationships his own satisfaction.
Emhoff once allegedly punched an ex-girlfriend so hard in the face in public that she turned away. Why then hasn’t he been chased out of polite society?
In the case of the nanny, this was at the expense of a woman twelve years younger than him and his employee. Her life was changed forever.
So why hasn’t Emhoff been chased out of polite society?
Because his wife is the current Vice President of the United States. And he is the beneficiary of a huge double standard.
Apparently we no longer believe in all women, as the founders of #MeToo once said.
A public ally of sexual abuse victims, Kamala Harris, certainly appears to have the right bona fide.
In 2017, she tweeted: “Sexual harassment and misconduct should not be condoned by anyone or allowed anywhere.”
The following year, as a U.S. senator, Harris introduced the EMPOWER Act, which would have made it illegal for companies to cover up sexual or other forms of harassment with nondisclosure agreements.
Harris is also considered something of a ringleader in a campaign of demonstrably fabricated attacks on Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh during his confirmation hearings, also in 2018. He was accused of sexual assault with little evidence.
When Harris was asked in 2019 about female accusers — including Tara Reade who alleged that President Joe Biden sexually assaulted her years ago — she said, “I believe them, and I respect that they can tell their story and have the courage to do it .’
The hypocrisy is breathtaking, and not just from Harris.
Where do #MeToo activists criticize Emhoff? Where is the media’s glowing spotlight when it comes to a man coming within an inch of our ‘First Lord’?
How is it that Emhoff skates freely and clearly, without questions asked, right through everything?
I speak for many women like me who have been abused and have been able to talk about it: shame on them, shame on him – and shame on her too.