Emhoff goes to bat for Harris in challenging Trump on the trail

Second gentleman Doug Emhoff is ready to go to bat for Vice President Harris.

Since his wife became the expected Democratic nominee for president this week, Emhoff has challenged her opponent, former President Trump, over attacks against Harris, building upon previous criticism in which Emhoff called the GOP nominee a “known antisemite” and “toxic.”

Harris's allies are eager to see Emhoff, who is known as a stalwart defender of his spouse, break out on the campaign trail and be used as a secret weapon to support her historic run.

In an early look at how Emhoff might handle criticisms Trump has about Harris, the second gentleman told reporters traveling with him to Virginia on Tuesday: “That’s all he’s got?”

“You heard the vice president yesterday making the case against Donald Trump very clearly. Laid out the case directly, and in a compelling fashion. But she also laid out a vision for the future, a vision where there’s freedom, where we’re not having to talk about these issues of today in this post-Dobbs hellscape that Donald Trump created,” Emhoff said.

The stop in Virginia came as Emhoff, like the rest of Harris’s campaign, hit the ground running on the trail.

He was with Harris to introduce her at campaign headquarters in Wilmington, Del., on Monday; visited Virginia on Tuesday to go to a reproductive health center; and is set to travel to Wisconsin on Saturday to headline a canvass launch for Harris and Democrats up and down the ballot.

Allies say it’s all indicative of the close relationship between the two.

“Mr. Emhoff and Vice President Harris are true partners in every sense of the word. His support for the vice president fuels the fight for gender equity in a way that will shape generations to come. The second gentleman is a significant asset to the campaign — which is why we are seeing him hitting the trail and galvanizing people across the country,” said Rachel Palermo, who served as Harris’s deputy communications director and associate counsel in the White House.

A former Senate aide to Harris also lauded Emhoff’s personality, which could be key to capturing some attention from voters.

“The second gentleman has always been incredibly supportive to VP Harris. Not only as a sounding board for her, but as a person because he’s so funny and brilliant to talk to. His background is sure to be an asset to her campaign as she reaches to unite people all over the country,” the former Senate aide said.

Trump has dubbed Harris “Laughin’ Kamala” and “Lyin’ Kamala” since she jumped into the presidential race after President Biden dropped out on Sunday amid mounting pressure to step aside or risk losing the election. 

Harris quickly coalesced the party around her— accelerated by endorsements from Biden and former Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) — and quickly got support from enough delegates to secure the nomination ahead of the Democrats’ August convention.

She has also hit the campaign trail, making stops in Texas, Indiana and Wisconsin, since Tuesday and trying out her messaging and strategy for her campaign.

While Harris is clearly out front and center, Seth Schuster, national spokesperson for the Harris campaign, called Emhoff “the biggest supporter of the vice president both on and off the trail” and said he will be “a vigorous and active campaigner” leading up to the November election.

Emhoff’s rebuttal of Trump’s attacks on his wife this week isn’t the first time he has taken on the former president.

In March, Emhoff, who is Jewish, said Trump should be “condemned” for his interview with conservative radio host Sebastian Gorka, where he said Democrats “hate Israel” and that Jewish voters who back Democrats hate their religion.

“This is a disgusting, toxic antisemitic thing to say, by anyone, let alone a former president of the United States, and it must be condemned,” Emhoff said.

When Trump shared a video on social media referencing a “unified Reich” in May, Emhoff said, “The last person I’m going to take advice from as a Jewish person is a known antisemite, who’s had dinner with antisemites, who said there was good people on both sides after Charlottesville.”

But Emhoff has a very different side to him other than the attack dog role — he’s also the “cool guy.”

Aside from his work for the administration, Emhoff’s time in Washington has been spent doing normal activities around the city, like baseball games and visits to coffee shops and breweries.

He’s also spent his time having buddy moments with Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg’s husband Chasten, engaging in small talk with celebrities outside the White House, cheering on the U.S. women’s team at the World Cup in New Zealand, and visiting the U.S. women’s basketball practice before the Paris Olympics.

“I think he brings a warmth and a likability that is really very complementary to her, and I think all those things are going to make him a big asset on the campaign,” Katherine Sibley, a history professor at Saint Joseph’s University, said of Emhoff.

Emhoff carved out his own path as second gentleman when he took on the role as the first to do it. He has taught at Georgetown University Law Center as a distinguished visitor after he stepped down from his law firm, DLA Piper, in August 2020, when Harris was running on the ticket with Biden. He was a partner in the firm’s Los Angeles office and specialized in media, sports and entertainment, and intellectual property.

Political watchers see him stepping back from his law firm work and supporting Harris as another plus for her on the campaign trail that highlights their strong marriage.

“In any good marriage, you balance that and you help each other, and that's what people should be inferring from this as well,” said Anita McBride, former chief of staff to first lady Laura Bush. “The strength of a marriage, how does that help? It helps a lot.”

Meanwhile, Republicans are navigating how to criticize Harris with GOP leaders notably warning colleagues to back off of using diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) politics to do so.

That wasn’t helped recently when a 2021 clip resurfaced of Trump’s running mate, Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio), who at the time called Harris and other female politicians “childless cat ladies,” despite her being a stepmother to Emhoff’s two children.

Emhoff’s role in Harris’s life will also be compared to that of Trump’s wife, former first lady Melania Trump, who went to the Republican National Convention to watch the former president’s speech on the last day but otherwise has been almost entirely absent from the campaign trail.

Sibley expects Emhoff to be the opposite for Harris.

“For her to come to the convention and barely make a wrinkle there,” Sibley said of Melania Trump. “It’s very different, I think we’re not going to see that with Doug Emhoff. I can’t imagine he’s not going to speak at the convention, it would be shocking.”