In a surprising turn of events, Doug Emhoff, the husband of Vice President Kamala Harris, has been accused of domestic violence.
Emhoff, who has been lauded by left-leaning domestic violence prevention groups and mainstream media figures as a positive example of masculinity, is now under scrutiny following these allegations. Despite the serious nature of the accusations, these groups have remained conspicuously silent.
According to The Daily Mail, Emhoff allegedly assaulted his then-girlfriend at the Cannes Film Festival in France in May 2012. The report, which cites three friends of the alleged victim, claims that Emhoff struck the woman so forcefully that she spun around. One friend recounted that the woman called him, sobbing, immediately after the incident. Another friend confirmed that the woman had told her about the alleged assault at the time. The third friend stated that the woman had retold the story in 2018, around the time when Harris was questioning then-Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh about sexual assault allegations.
While The Daily Mail refrained from naming the then-girlfriend or the friends, it did publish images provided by the friends as evidence that Emhoff had been in a relationship with the woman. Neither the Harris campaign nor the White House responded to The Daily Signals request for comment. However, a spokesperson for Emhoff vehemently denied the incident, stating, This report is untrue. Any suggestion that he would, or has ever, hit a woman is false.
This domestic abuse accusation follows a previous report by The Daily Mail that Emhoff had cheated on his first wife and the mother of his two children around 2008, allegedly fathering a child with his daughters nanny. Emhoff confessed to the affair in August. He later married Harris in 2014.
Despite these allegations, Emhoff has been praised by mainstream media personalities and domestic violence prevention groups as a positive example of masculinity. Jen Psaki, a former press secretary for President Joe Biden and a current MSNBC host, lauded Emhoff for having reshaped the perception of masculinity, describing him as an incredibly supportive spouse. Catherine Rampell, a Washington Post columnist, hailed Emhoff as a progressive sex symbol and the modern female fantasy.
Belinda Luscombe, Time magazine Editor-at-Large, analyzed The Doug Emhoff Model of Masculinity in the context of the second gentlemans speech at the Democratic National Convention in August. The National Womens Law Center, which runs the TIMES UP Legal Defense Fund to represent alleged victims of sexual assault, invited Emhoff to speak at its 50th anniversary gala in November 2022.
However, in light of the recent allegations, The Daily Signal reached out to Psaki, Rampell, and Luscombe with questions about whether they still consider Emhoff a good example of masculinity and a sex symbol. They did not respond to requests for comment. The National Womens Law Center also did not respond to questions about the accusations. Its Action Fund is spending millions to support Harris in battleground states.
The National Organization for Women, which has also endorsed Harris, did not respond to The Daily Signals request for comment. The National Coalition Against Domestic Violence declined to comment. The National Resource Center on Domestic Violence did not respond to a request for comment.
However, conservative-leaning groups did comment on the domestic violence claims. Andrea Bottner, vice president of external relations at Independent Womens Forum, told The Daily Signal on Tuesday, These are troubling allegations, and frankly, its not surprising they arent getting immense attention, due to his high-profile media-darling spouse. It is Domestic Violence Awareness Month, and we should treat allegations like these seriously.
May Mailman, director of the Independent Womens Law Center, echoed these sentiments, stating, Empowered women, and respectful men, do not tolerate domestic violence. I thought that was the aim of #MeToo, empowering women to band together, speak up, and say no more.
Mailman added, Instead of that, I find it completely infantilizing of women to say that we should support some guy as a masculine herooh, dont mind his pastsimply because hes Kamalas husband. These allegations against Emhoff, if proven true, could significantly tarnish his image as a positive example of masculinity and raise serious questions about the silence of those who previously praised him.
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