Vice President Kamala Harris’ past condemnations of domestic abuse and sexual assault perpetrators are coming back to haunt her following a report of her now-husband “forcefully slapping” an ex-girlfriend more than a decade ago.
Second gentleman Doug Emhoff, a 59-year-old Hollywood lawyer, struck his then-flame, a successful New York attorney, in the face “so hard, she spun around” as the two waited in the valet line following an event at the Cannes Film Festival in May 2012, three anonymous friends of the woman told the Daily Mail.
Harris critics swiftly seized on the alleged abuse — purportedly prompted by Emhoff’s misplaced jealousy in assuming his beau was flirting with another man — by recalling years of the vice president claiming she “believes women” who are “survivors of sexual assault.”
“Believe survivors,” one X user said Tuesday, sharing the Daily Mail’s troubling report.
“Except Doug Emhoff’s first wife,” another user noted, referencing the second gentleman’s marriage that ended after he impregnated his child’s nanny.
Credulous attitudes toward sex abuse allegations had reached a fever pitch among Democrats during the contentious confirmation hearings for now-Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh in 2018.
Harris immediately declared she believed Christine Blasey Ford’s allegations that Kavanaugh forced himself on her at a high school party — and promoted spurious stories about the jurist previously raping a woman in the backseat of a car.
Online critics on Tuesday resurfaced many of those comments that the then-California Democratic senator made about Ford and other female victims.
“Wore black today in support of all survivors of sexual assault or abuse. We won’t let them be silenced or ignored. #BelieveSurvivors,” Harris posted on Twitter, now X, in September 2018, one week before Kavanaugh’s confirmation vote.
RedState senior editor Brandon Morse reposted the comment, remarking that the sentiment had “aged like milk.”
“I stand with women across every industry to say #TIMESUP on abuse, harassment, marginalization, and underrepresentation,” Harris said in January 2018 to mark the launch of an organization dedicated to serving abused women as part of the #MeToo movement.
Roberta Kaplan, chairwoman of the group’s legal defense fund, resigned in August 2021 over it repping a top aide to New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo and allegedly seeking to smear one of the 11 women who accused him of sexual misconduct.
Time’s Up ceased operations in January 2023.
“We need to take crimes against women and children more seriously — crimes like human trafficking, domestic violence, and child abuse,” Harris also posted in May 2017.
“Maybe talk to your woman beater husband,” an X user responded Wednesday.
“Sorry Dems – Every woman must be believed. Your rules,” said RedState columnist Rusty Weiss in response. “Now get to condemning @SecondGentleman in the strongest possible terms.”
“Believe all women is sooo 2017,” snarked another.
Still others drew attention to Harris’ swipe early in the 2020 Democratic presidential primary against Joe Biden, who was accused by former Senate aide Tara Reade of sexual assault.
Former colleagues and landlords of Reade were quick to cast doubt on the allegations, from which only one piece of contemporaneous evidence emerged, according to the New York Times.
“As someone who has spent my entire career fighting for the health, safety, and wellbeing of women and girls, I have seen the impact of the Violence Against Women Act up close,” Harris said in a statement last month about the 1994 law that heightened penalties for sex crimes.
“As a courtroom prosecutor, I specialized in crimes against women and children,” she added, burnishing her revamped campaign image since President Biden’s July 21 suspension of his campaign.
“Together, alongside survivors, advocates, and allies, President Biden and I will continue to do everything in our power to ensure that every woman throughout America has the freedom to live safe from violence and hate.”
The Harris campaign did not respond to a request for comment.
