The Second Gentleman Is No Gentleman
By Emma Foley
In the home stretch of the 2024 race, Kamala Harris’s husband, Doug Emhoff, has been accused of abusing a former lover. His alleged problematic past undermines the media narrative that Emhoff is the torchbearer of a reformed masculinity. It also exposes Harris’s fraudulence as a supposed champion of women.
Emhoff’s biggest flaw is that he shamelessly adores his wife, if you ask those who get their news from Saturday Night Live. Actors Andy Samberg and Maya Rudolph did a skit portraying the two in puppy love. The media consensus? Doug’s a “wife guy.” He can’t help being his goofy-Gen X-husband-self. Goals!
The feminists go further, saying Emhoff is a “progressive sex symbol.” Emhoff served as a stay-at-home-husband throughout Harris’s term as vice president. He has been praised for relegating himself to be her sidekick, a pair of jeans next to her pantsuit.
The Washington Post’s Catherine Rampbell writes that Emhoff embodies today’s feminist fantasy: suitors who “prove their worth by agreeing to walk away from their own professional accomplishments to prioritize their partner’s.” (Note: If a woman does the same for her husband, it’s because she wants to drag women back to the 1950s.)
But the facade of Emhoff as a feminist’s dream is crumbling. In August, the Daily Mail reported that Emhoff cheated on his ex-wife with the family nanny, getting her pregnant. The nanny also happened to be a teacher at his children’s elementary school. This, along with irreconcilable differences, led to Doug and Kerstin Emhoff’s divorce in 2008. Emhoff allegedly paid off nanny Najen Naylor to the tune of $80,000 to keep quiet. What happened to the baby is a mystery.
Emhoff, a prominent entertainment lawyer, responded to the scandal by vaguely confirming some aspects of the report. But the Daily Mail, with firsthand credibility, had more up its sleeve.
Allegedly, when Emhoff took a date to the Cannes Film Festival, a few too many drinks and a misunderstanding with a security guard later had him clocking her in the face and knocking her off-kilter. Though the story was denied by an Emhoff spokeswoman, several testimonies from various witnesses corroborate it.
It’s possible these allegations surprised Harris. So far she has chosen to stay loyal to her spouse despite the jarring development. Given the fact that she’s oriented her platform around women’s rights and courting the female vote, Harris should have felt obligated to make a statement. But Harris has proven that she applies a political double standard when there’s alleged violence against women. She treats the allegations seriously only when they are politically advantageous to her.
As a far-Left senator, Harris wanted to be a part of the mob that would destroy the reputation of Justice Brett Kavanaugh on his way to the Supreme Court. She barraged the judge during his confirmation hearing. In regards to the baseless accusations of sexual assault by Christine Blasey-Ford, Harris declared, “I believe her.” She later called for a Kavanaugh impeachment inquiry on the anniversary of Ford’s testimony.
When Harris wanted to shake up the Democratic primary in 2020, she accused Joe Biden of sexual assault after Tara Reade and others came forward with allegations.
“I believe them and I respect them being able to tell their story and having the courage to do it,” she said.
But now that her husband has been accused of battery by an ex-girlfriend, it’s crickets from Harris. Has she finally read up on the presumption of innocence?
If the claims are false, will she stand up for her husband’s character? If they’re true, will she condemn him and correct the media’s current framing that the duo have an inspiring, female-empowering relationship?
Whether or not it is true that big-shot lawyer siphoned off five figures to the nanny he slept with, that there was a pregnancy, that Dougie-the-male-feminist smacked a woman so hard she swiveled— they would function only as supplemental proof that the man is bad news. Emhoff’s scumbaggery is displayed in what he needs an NDA to hide but also in the statements he repeats publicly.
In a recent interview with Jonathan Capehart and Jennifer Hudson, Emhoff touted his duty to “lift up” women and snuff out “toxic masculinity.”
“Toxic masculinity” is an oxymoron. Masculinity isn’t toxic, and despite what his wife’s former employee Jen Psaki says on MSNBC, Emhoff doesn’t have the ability to “redefine” it.
Emhoff is a toxic male because he is deficient in masculinity. What man is so void of self-control that he leaves his wife for the babysitter? What man stands idly by while Harris and Jill Biden put the rapidly declining elder president Joe Biden through… a presidency?
What man headlines abortion rallies? Emhoff says the quiet part out loud: abortion on-demand is a welcome mat for sleazy men to treat women poorly. It’s a no-receipt-necessary return policy for men like himself. “Progressive sex symbol” was, in a way, not far-off.
“I’m talking about [abortion] with my other dad friends… I’m talking about [abortion] with my son,” Emhoff spoke to NBC news. “We talked about how [Dobbs] is going to impact him and how he’s going to start a family or not.”
A world in which men must be responsible for their sexual actions and stand by their women is, he calls it, a “hellscape.” (Note: “No uterus, no opinion” is a one-way street.)
Commentators are correct when they say the allegations would see more light if Emhoff were a Republican, but this goes beyond party. Emhoff is being hailed as a champion of women. He’s the face of equal rights at Harris-Walz rallies, and he’s sitting down with celebrities to chat about busting so-called patriarchal gender norms and glass ceilings. His “feminism,” however, is merely repackaged misogyny.
Harris’s judgment is poor, evidenced by her decision to marry Doug Emhoff. America should call the whole thing off.
Emma Foley is a content manager at National Review and former digital managing editor for the Howie Carr Radio Network. She grew up in Pennsylvania, but after graduating from Boston College, she decided to make Massachusetts her new home.
