Hanging on the wall subsequent to a picturesque window view of the White Home grounds in Doug Emhoff’s sunlit nook workplace is a hand-crafted rectangular wooden carving with the phrases, in all caps, “SECOND GENTLEMAN.”
When the husband of Vice President Kamala Harris and veteran leisure lawyer took this newly titled function, it was, as he put it, an “open slate.” The election of his spouse because the nation’s first feminine VP meant that, for the primary time, there can be a male partner of one of many White Home principals.
Virtually three years in to this place, Emhoff mentioned that circumstances, greater than anything, have outlined what he does. Up to now yr specifically, he has turn out to be a number one voice on antisemitism, including to a portfolio that has included such different points as gender fairness and psychological well being.
The function, Emhoff mentioned in an interview with Deadline this week, has “developed into serving to the administration in any method I may, and sadly, with the rise of hate and the rise of antisemitism, even previous to October 7, being the primary Jewish individual ever to be a White Home principal, that was an actual pure space for me to leap into.”
On the lighting of the menorah on the Ellipse this month, Emhoff talked of his conversations with representatives throughout the Jewish group by way of a number of roundtables, conferences with hostage households and different occasions. “The frequent denominator of those conversations is that we’re feeling alone, we really feel hated, we’re in ache,” Emhoff mentioned in his remarks.
Within the interview, Emhoff described not simply the horrific nature of the ten/7 assaults however the reactions of Hamas — “the glee, the laughter, makes it a lot worse.” What adopted has been a “disaster” and “tsunami of antisemitism.”
“There’s a rage that I believe loads of us really feel [about 10/7], will at all times really feel, however the shock of the antisemitism, sadly, I’d been seeing all of it alongside,” Emhoff mentioned. “Objectively, by ADL requirements, FBI, we’ve by no means seen something just like the antisemitism since 10/7, however sadly to say I’m not shocked by it. I noticed it coming.”
For a few years now, Emhoff has been a key White Home voice on combatting antisemitism. He spoke in a Could occasion because the administration’s nationwide technique to fight antisemitism was unveiled, and had hosted roundtables and, in January, traveled Germany and Poland, together with a go to to the positioning of the Auschwitz-Birkenau loss of life camp
“I knew that antisemitism was clearly on the rise,” Emhoff mentioned. “We noticed that with Charlottesville and Tree of Life and so forth by the primary couple of years. We noticed what Kanye [West] mentioned and [white supremacist] Nick Fuentes and the banner on our freeway, the 405. I knew that I wanted personally to make use of this platform to do one thing extra.”
When requested why there was such an increase in antisemitic hate incidents after 10/7, Emhoff mentioned that he had what was type of a “simplistic reply”: “Individuals are American Jews and putting accountability on these Jews for actions of the Israeli authorities that they don’t agree with, and they’re mainly equating these actions they don’t agree with with the Jewish folks,” he mentioned. “And loads of that’s directed at Jewish college students at school campuses. And also you’re seeing the protests, and also you’re seeing the slogans. There’s an entire incapability of many individuals to carry multiple or two issues of their head on the identical time, and they’re conflating points.”
President Joe Biden appears on as Second Gentleman Douglas Emhoff lights the menorah throughout a Hanukkah reception this month within the East Room of the White Home.
Photograph by Doug Mills – Pool/Getty Photographs
Social media, he mentioned, has exacerbated the scenario, together with from distinguished voices. To fight it, the White Home plan requires training, security, preventing misinformation and disinformation, and counterprogramming, he mentioned.
“So for each horrible factor that Kanye [West] says, we’d like others to step up and … speak about not solely that antisemitism is dangerous, however who Jews are, and the awesomeness of it,” Emhoff mentioned. “That’s what we’d like, and we’d like coalitions. We have to deliver the coalitions again collectively. Proper now, there’s loads of discourse that’s not optimistic amongst teams. We have to deliver all of those teams again collectively and combat this epidemic of hate collectively, as a result of it’s not simply antisemitism, it’s Islamophobia, anti-LGBTQ hate — all these that now we have been preventing, as a result of it’s all related.”
Emhoff mentioned that he has been talking to figures like Pink, “who’s celebrating her Jewish heritage very publicly.” He cautioned that he “can’t pressure anybody to do something,” however what he’s doing is checking in and having a dialog.
“It’s simply attempting to indicate the best way, and that’s the reason I’ve been so public from the get-go,” he mentioned. “My message is: ‘I like being Jewish. I’m proud to be Jewish. I’m not going to dwell in worry. I’m not going to be afraid. I’m going to be as open as potential to hopefully present different folks that if I can do it, they’ll do it.’”
Joel Goldstein, a scholar on the vice presidency and professor of regulation emeritus at St. Louis College College of Regulation, mentioned that as the primary Second Gentleman, Emhoff “has performed a really energetic and constructive function in that place.”
“As a pacesetter within the administration’s efforts in opposition to antisemitism, his work has complemented Vice President Harris’ work extra typically in attempting to make America extra inclusive,” Goldstein wrote by way of e mail. By taking up such an energetic function, Goldstein famous, Emhoff has helped “broaden the capability of the administration to pursue its programmatic objectives.”
Emhoff spent a long time training regulation in Los Angeles, on points starting from contract disputes to mental property lawsuits. He had been a managing director at Venable and later a accomplice at DLA Piper, however stop that agency after the 2020 election. He mentioned that he additionally has drawn on his Hollywood expertise in pursuing the administration’s portfolio, whereas serving as the last word supporter for his spouse, the previous senator and lawyer basic of California.
Vice President Kamala Harris and Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff host an occasion celebrating the fiftieth anniversary of hip hop on the VP’s residence in September
Photograph by Kevin Dietsch/Getty Photographs
“It ready me rather a lot,” he mentioned. “I labored in all facets of Hollywood, and so being there and being profitable there, you’ve got to have loads of instruments in your toolbox. You’ve got to have the ability to take care of very nerve-racking conditions. You have got have gotten to have good negotiation expertise. You’ve got to have good political expertise. You’ve got to have a spread of attributes to achieve success as a Hollywood lawyer, and I did that for 30 years. And because it seems, so lots of these expertise [are important] — having the ability to talk a viewpoint, staying calm beneath stress, understanding folks, listening greater than you converse, having some empathy for an additional’s place — as a result of in Hollywood, all of us need to work collectively.”
Emhoff’s son Cole works within the trade, and his ex-wife, producer Kerstin Emhoff, has a manufacturing firm. (In addition they have a daughter, Ella, an artist). The Second Gentleman is probably not training however he nonetheless teaches leisure regulation at Georgetown Regulation College, and he nonetheless follows what’s going on within the trade. “It’s in my blood,” he mentioned.
Of the not too long ago settled actors and writers strike, Emhoff mentioned that he’s “relieved.” “I’m glad it’s over. I’m glad the events had been capable of come collectively and attain an settlement, and I wished to see Hollywood get again to work and do what they do, which is to make content material for everybody.”
At one level throughout the walkout, Emhoff’s identify was even floated as somebody who probably may assist settle the strikes, however he took no half. “I noticed that bandied about,” he mentioned. “It was good to see that, however no. It needed to come collectively the best way it did, the place the events themselves all got here collectively and labored it out. So, fortunately, intervention was not wanted.”
When Emhoff took on the place of Second Gentleman, there was deal with whether or not he would tackle a few of the conventional duties of a second partner, like deciding on china or selecting out wallpaper. That was a little bit of a throwback to previous gender roles, as even a few of Emhoff’s feminine predecessors — together with Jill Biden and Karen Pence — had a signature set of points.
“I knew coming in it was all arms on deck. I needed to journey the nation and assist folks get vaccinated, get the economic system again, and simply meet of us and listen to what they wanted and be responsive as an administration,” Emhoff mentioned. “I didn’t have time for that stuff, though through the years I’ve labored with the vp and her crew on the extra conventional issues. However these are issues that we do as a pair. I don’t suppose I might deign to do this on my own. We do it collectively.”
A typical day, Emhoff mentioned, begins within the morning “with simply being there, serving to her get her day began as an excellent husband and getting her out the door as vp, after which it’s specializing in my day, and it’s actually a blended bag.”
A spotlight has been on bringing folks collectively from music, arts and sports activities, he mentioned. On a current journey to London, for example, he met with the Chelsea crew to speak about find out how to combat racism. He additionally visited Abbey Highway Studios and did a roundtable on combatting hate. Harris, in the meantime, was attending the summit on synthetic intelligence.
“We attempt to spend a while collectively as a pair, and he or she likes to prepare dinner, so anytime she will prepare dinner, she does,” Emhoff mentioned. “We love motion pictures, we love to observe issues collectively, however these are lengthy days. She’s vp 24/7, 365, and loads of the job may very well be throughout the nighttime.” Among the many reveals they love, he mentioned, are Sport of Thrones and Home of the Dragon.
Emhoff already has been headlining fundraising occasions and emails for the Biden-Harris reelection effort, which appears to be a really shut and really caustic marketing campaign cycle. With the chance that 2024 will imply a Biden-Trump rematch, Emhoff already is placing the election within the phrases of a stark selection.
“That is actually a combat between saving our democracy and somebody who’s on the market, speaking about poisoning, poisoned blood and fascism,” Emhoff mentioned.
“That is only a very binary scenario,” he mentioned. “We have now received to avoid wasting our democracy. We have now received to avoid wasting our freedom. Coming from this leisure group, freedom of expression, freedom of creativity, freedom of the press: All of this stuff are at concern.”
Given Biden’s age, Republicans have already got made Harris a goal of their assaults, one thing that’s more likely to proceed to the overall election. Emhoff mentioned that the best way he reacts to the unfavourable protection is to “ignore it. As a result of that comes with the territory. Our combat for freedom, our combat for democracy, is simply too necessary to deal with any nonsense.”
