If Kamala Harris is elected president of the United States next month, her husband will be awarded the unprecedented title of 'First Gentleman'.
Yet I can hardly think of a less suitable way to describe Doug Emhoff who, were he married to almost anyone else on the planet, could be condemned as an alleged #MeToo monster.
In August, the Daily Mail revealed how, in 2009, Emhoff cheated on his first wife with their daughter's nanny, who was also a teacher at her private school. The Mail also reported that Emhoff had allegedly impregnated her, leading 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 nanny's circle denied any part of the story. Emhoff has since admitted the affair.
Earlier this month, the Mail dropped another bombshell: Emhoff once allegedly hit an ex-girlfriend in the face so hard in public that she spun around. The claim was corroborated by three friends of the alleged victim, who say that she told them that the slap happened while she waited in a valet line at an event during the 2012 Cannes Film Festival, in France, around two years before Emhoff married Harris.
An unnamed representative for Emhoff has said that the report is 'untrue' and that 'any suggestion that [Emhoff] would or ever hit a woman is false.'
On Thursday, Emhoff's ex-girlfriend spoke exclusively to the Mail and insisted that her story is, in fact, true.
'Doug got out of the [valet] line, comes up, turns me around by my right shoulder. I'm completely caught off guard, I'm not bracing, I'm in four-inch heels, wearing a full-length gown and it's between 2-3am,' claimed the woman, referred to only as 'Jane' in the report. 'He slaps me so hard I spin around, and I'm in utter shock,' she added. 'In that moment, his mask had dropped and I saw his dark side.'
As a survivor of rape and domestic violence, I find these allegations utterly appalling.
The Mail's stories about Emhoff's alleged violence have threatened to open the floodgates as colleagues from his former law firm claimed he had been 'inappropriate' and 'misogynistic' at work and that he had allegedly punished female workers who failed to reciprocate his flirting.
The Mail has also revealed a 2019 lawsuit that claims – while he was engaged to Harris – Emhoff hired an 'unqualified' part-time model as a legal secretary 'because she was young, attractive and friendly with the powerful men in the office.'
Appearing recently on MSNBC, Emhoff 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's all the more incredible, then that (weeks after news of his infidelity had broken) Emhoff was described as a 'modern-day sex symbol' by Washington Post columnist Catherine Rampell because, she insisted, he is 'secure enough in his own masculinity to sometimes prioritize his wife's ambitions over his own' – a reference, of course, to his current wife.
'What. A. Hunk,' concluded the breathless Rampell, happy to brush off the nanny affair simply as 'previous marital drama'.
Just what is going on here?
So far from being the male 'feminist' some on the Left like to imagine, Emhoff is, in fact, an outstanding example of exactly what the #MeToo movement fights against: a wealthy, influential man who allegedly exploited the power imbalance of relationships for his own gratification.
Emhoff once allegedly hit an ex-girlfriend in the face so hard in public that she spun around. Why, then, has he not been hounded out of polite society?
In the case of the nanny, it came at the expense of a woman who was 12 years his junior and his employee. Her life was changed forever.
Why, then, has Emhoff not been hounded out of polite society?
Because his wife is the current vice president of the United States. And he is the beneficiary of a massive double standard.
Apparently, we are long past believing all women, as the #MeToo founders once stated.
A public ally of the victims of sexual abuse, Kamala Harris, would certainly appear to have the right bona fides.
In 2017, she tweeted: 'Sexual harassment and misconduct must not be allowed by anyone and should not occur anywhere.'
The following year, as a US 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 has also been regarded as something of a ringleader in a campaign against Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh during his confirmation hearings, also in 2018. He was accused of sexual assault with arguably scant evidence.
When, in 2019, Harris was asked about female accusers – including Tara Reade who claimed President Joe Biden had sexually assaulted her years ago – she stated: 'I believe them, and I respect them being able to tell their story and having the courage to do it.'
The hypocrisy is breathtaking, and not just from Harris.
Where are the #MeToo activists denouncing Emhoff? Where is the media's white-hot spotlight when it comes to a man within an inch of becoming our 'First Gentleman'?
How come Emhoff is skating free and clear, no questions asked, right through it all?
I speak for a lot of women like me, who've been abused and lived to talk about it: Shame on them, shame on him – and shame on her, too.
True, but the story seems a little thin.
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