Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff – and I use that term ‘gentleman’ loosely – has responded (sort of) and denied (sort of) the allegations of abuse that were broken by The Daily Mail earlier this week.
There have been two stories broken by The Daily Mail about Doug Emhoff. He was forced to admit to the first one, which involved him cheating on his first wife, Kerstin Emhoff, with his child’s nanny, Najen Naylor, and getting her pregnant.
In report number two, there is a new allegation that he physically abused a girlfriend who he dated two years prior to meeting Kamala Harris. She was reportedly a successful, beautiful attorney, and he is accused of having “forcefully slapped” her in 2012 while waiting in a valet line outside the glitzy amfAR Gala in Cannes, France. You can read the entire report from The Daily Mail here.
Emhoff’s ‘Denial’
The article was published on Wednesday, and Emhoff sort of issued a denial through an unnamed spokesperson on Thursday. It is the lamest denial I have seen from a public figure involved in a scandal in quite some time. We have a spokesperson telling Semafor – not The Daily Mail – that: “This report is untrue. Any suggestion that he would or has ever hit a woman is false.”
“This report is untrue” means absolutely nothing. It could be that they have an age wrong, or the date was wrong, or they weren’t actually at that hotel. We have no idea what “this report is untrue” refers to.
And then they added “any suggestion that he would or has ever hit a woman is false.” As you know, I am obsessed with former CIA officer Phil Houston’s deception detection methods. One of the things he teaches you is that statements like that are exactly the kind of non-denial denials that indicate falsehood, that indicate a liar.
If I said to you: Did you ever beat the sh-t out of an attorney in Cannes? You would say, ‘No, never.’ You, as a truth teller, would run toward the facts. You would say, ‘I was in Cannes. This was my girlfriend. Let’s find videotapes. They won’t show me hitting anyone. I’ll release my emails with this person from after our affair ended. There are absolutely no accusations.’ You would be like, ‘I am an open book because I did not do the thing.’ It would not be some amorphous, passive-voice statement from an unnamed spokesperson.
In my opinion, it is a lie. And you can tell it is a lie by the way it is worded.
Media Blackout
Meanwhile, most of the corporate media has completely ignored the story. Hats off to Chris Cuomo, who gave it some coverage on NewsNation. But even Semafor did not mention it until they got the denial from him. The Washington Post, New York Times, you name it, no one will touch this thing with a 10-foot pole even though they have three – anonymous to us, but not to The Daily Mail – friends of hers on record saying this happened.
They know this professional, successful attorney very well, and they provided receipts, airline tickets, and in-the-moment testimonials of this woman calling, in particular, her male friend while she was still reportedly terrified that he might continue the assault.
For what it’s worth, The Daily Mail also reported that this attorney he dated and allegedly beat is a Democrat. The friends are also Democrats, and they don’t really want to even be talking about this. But they were so disgusted with how Emhoff is being painted by Kamala Harris, her campaign, and the media that they felt like the public must know.
It is also interesting that the alleged victim has not yet spoken. Let’s just say I was running for president and my husband got accused of beating a prior girlfriend but he was innocent. The first thing he would do is call that woman and ask her to issue a statement saying it isn’t so. And any woman to whom this did not happen would say of course.
Where is this statement from the Democrat attorney who he dated saying, ‘This is bullsh-t, Daily Mail. You’ve got it wrong’? Why are three of this woman’s friends talking to The Daily Mail and giving travel receipts that, by the way, only this woman would have 12 years later.
Clearly, this woman is not ready to deny this. She is probably still angry about it. She has reportedly got a great life. She probably moved on to another relationship at this point. And if she really is a Democrat, there are consequences in those circles if she comes forward. The Democrats will turn on her. She could be hurt professionally. If she comes out and puts her face with this report, they are not going to be sympathetic toward her for getting slapped in the face at Cannes. They are going to be pissed off.
‘Who Will Do Their Duty?’
When I was at Fox News, I reported on the claims from Donald Trump’s ex-wife Ivana Trump that he had raped her when they were married. I also reported the fact that she later recanted that accusation. We reported it on my show long before Trump came at me at the 2015 debate, but he was very angry.
When I got to NBC, we put on accusers of, yes, Trump but also accusers of Roy Moore, who was the Republican Senate candidate running in Alabama. At the time, there were some nine women accusing him of sexual assault. I did that notwithstanding the fact that my sympathies have been with the right for over a decade. It is not that I always vote Republican; it is just I am more right-leaning. But because I am an honest reporter, I will bring you the news whether it hurts my ‘side’ or not.
Who in the left-wing media will be like that? Who will live up to their journalistic duty and look into whether we have a possible serial abuser about to ascend to the first gentleman position with access to God knows what kind of personnel files, and opportunities, and world leaders, not to mention the possible sitting president of the United States. Who will do their duty?
You can check out Megyn’s full analysis by tuning in to episode 907 on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you like to listen. And don’t forget that you can catch The Megyn Kelly Show live on SiriusXM’s Triumph (channel 111) weekdays from 12pm to 2pm ET.