When Fox News Digital asked how 2nd Rep. Doug Emhoff’s affair with his ex-wife would affect his image as a leader who advocates for women’s groups, some progressive women’s groups were silent.
Fox News Digital sent inquiries for comment to EMILYs List, the League of Women Voters, the West Michigan Alliance of Progressive Women, the National Organization for Women, the National Women’s Political Conference, the Feminist Majority Foundation, the Institute for Women’s Policy Studies, the Women’s Liberation Front and the International Center for Research on Women. None of the groups responded by deadline to questions about whether Emhoff should face scrutiny as a candidate for the next first gentleman.
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Kirsten Emhoff spoke out about her ex-husband Doug Emhoff’s affair with the nanny. (Getty)
Her husband, Emhoff, a Democratic standard-bearer, is involved with a number of left-wing causes and has urged men to support abortion following the ruling overturning Roe v. Wade in the summer of 2022. Earlier this year, he worked with Men4Choice to campaign for abortion rights, traveling through Florida, Arizona and North Carolina while his wife visited abortion clinics for reporters.
“This is about fairness to women. Women are dying,” Emhoff told NBC in an interview in May. “This is about men’s ability to plan their lives. It’s also about what happens next and what other freedoms are at risk. And those freedoms don’t just affect women, they affect all Americans.”
Emhoff, the husband of Vice President Harris, acknowledged the affair with their daughter’s nanny shortly after the Daily Mail reported last week that his husband had had an affair with her and impregnated her. A close friend of the nanny told the paper that she did not raise the baby but did not provide further details.
“During my first marriage, Kirsten and I went through difficult times because of my behavior. I took responsibility for it and in the years since then we have overcome it as a family and come out stronger,” Emhoff told CNN about the affair last week.
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Vice President Harris and her husband, Doug Emhoff, fly aboard Air Force Two at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland on August 6, 2024. (Brendan Smiarowski/Pool/AFP via Getty Images)
Emhoff and his first wife were married from 1992 to 2008 and have two adult children. She married Emhoff in 2014. She helps co-parent the children, who call their stepmother “Mamalla.”
According to the New York Post, the reason for the divorce was “irreconcilable differences.”
Harris knew about the affair before they were married, and the Biden campaign knew about it when they were vetting her as Biden’s 2020 running mate, CNN reported.
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Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff (Kent Nishimura/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images/File)
Kerstin Emhoff defended her ex-boyfriend in a statement. The Washington Post Saturday.
“Doug and I decided to end our marriage many years ago for different reasons,” she wrote. “He has been a wonderful father to our children and remains a great friend to me. I am truly proud of the warm, supportive blended family that Doug, Kamala and I have built together.”
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Despite the infidelity and divorce, Kirsten Emhoff has supported Harris on social media, posting supportive messages about her ex-husband’s second wife.
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Fox News Digital’s Emma Colton contributed to this report.
