Some Tweets age like wine, others like milk. The one below was 100% dairy; it was practically mooing.
Wore black today in support of all survivors of sexual assault or abuse. We won't let them be silenced or ignored. #BelieveSurvivors pic.twitter.com/immVdGsepx
— Kamala Harris (@KamalaHarris) September 24, 2018
If you’ve been out of the loop, it came out this week that the husband of Kamala Harris, Doug Emhoff, has been accused of physically striking an ex-girlfriend. The alleged incident took place in 2012, two years before his marriage to Harris.
“She said he turned her around by her right shoulder, and she was completely caught off guard,” said one of the three(!) sources. “He hauled up and slapped her so hard, she spun around. She said she was in utter shock.”
“It was something like 3 a.m. They were trying to get out of [an event in France] and they both had been drinking,” said the second source. “There was a gigantic line for taxis. She went up to one of the valet guys, offered him 100 euros or whatever, to get to the head of the line. …Doug apparently thought that she was flirting, and came over and slapped her in the face.”
The third source told the media that the alleged victim told him of the assault way back in 2018 when then-Sen. Harris was making headlines for her aggressive questioning of nominated Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh over allegations of sexual violence against Christine Blasey Ford, which included assault, overdrinking, and other misconduct.
Related: Kamala's Husband Doug Emhoff Assaulted Ex-Girlfriend
“I believe her,” Kamala Harris told the media at the time. “She’s doing it [coming forward with these allegations], I believe, because she knows that this is an important matter. It’s a serious matter. And she has the courage to come forward. She has nothing to gain. What does she have to gain?”
Question for Kamala: What does the ex-girlfriend of Doug Emhoff have to gain?
(Or do we only #BelieveSurvivors when they’re accusing Republicans?)
Look, we could have a field day with all the hypocrisy. It’s extensive: This isn’t just a double-standard; it’s a double-standard with an exponent at the top. From the timeline — to the number of witnesses who heard of the assault YEARS earlier — it certainly seems that there are more reasons to believe Emhoff’s accuser than Christine Blasey Ford.
But these allegations against Emhoff are NOT going to receive heavy media coverage. The GOP could pound the issue with a jackhammer 24/7, and it still won’t get mainstream exposure. If you’re praying for this issue to sink the Harris ship, your prayers will be in vain.
But that doesn’t mean there won’t be PR fallout. There will — and it’s gonna be considerable. It’s just not going to manifest itself overtly.
Instead, the PR fallout will be via omission. It effectively takes certain issues off the table for the Harris campaign:
- We’re not going to hear much about a New York jury finding Trump liable for sexual abuse anymore.
- Criticism of Trump’s family (including his marriage to Melania) is now a no-no.
- It limits the Democrats’ ability to exploit the gender divide.
- Emhoff is no longer a viable surrogate for the Harris campaign. You can’t book him on a media tour with these vile, abusive stories circulating. It’s gonna be tough to put him back on Jimmy Kimmel or the “Jennifer Hudson Show,” where he tells that sappy, saccharine tale of his storybook romance with Kamala Harris. (His admission that his first marriage ended when he impregnated his kid’s nanny has already undercut his utility. With this new allegation, it’s simply too much.) He’ll need extensive brand rebuilding.
But we can't assess the biggest PR fallout right away. We’re going to need a few more weeks to see if momentum builds.
Just because the mainstream media gives this story scant coverage doesn’t mean it won’t get out. Conservative media exists (*cough* PJ Media *cough*); as long as Elon Musk owns X, there will no longer be media blackouts. The mainstream press can keep this story off the network airwaves, but it’s beyond its reach to permanently kill it.
So it’ll come out. Perhaps the witness will even give interviews. But even if she doesn’t, there’s more than enough “smoke” to attract an army of volunteer firefighters.
What happens next?
Come hell or high water, Team MAGA will be voting on Election Day. There could be biblical rains, floods, and an entire potpourri of natural disasters, and Trumpers will still find a way to get to the polls.
But how motivated will liberals be? If only a small percentage of liberals find themselves demotivated from voting now — and I’m only talking one or two percent — it’ll be enough to flip a razor-close election. They don’t necessarily need to switch to a red MAGA hat and join the Trump Train; simply demotivating them from voting is enough.
And if you’re a liberal woman who’s struggling under sky-high inflation and a nonexistent housing market, how motivated are you going to be to put Doug Emhoff in the White House? Especially if you’ve been a victim of abuse yourself, how will it feel to see Emhoff grinning each day as the “First Gentleman”?
Is that what you want? Or is it easier to stay at home and let Trump win? (Hey, you can still be a “good liberal” and complain about Trump later — after he solved the inflation crisis and housing shortage, of course.)
The PR fallout will be of omission, not addition. Already, multiple issues have been tossed to the scrapheap; they’re no longer viable. And then, it’s just a matter of time to see if the liberal voters get subtracted, too.
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