STEVENS POINT, Wis. \u2014 Doug Emhoff was late to learn his life had changed, he told an enthusiastic audience of Democratic volunteers Saturday as they prepared to knock on doors in support of his wife, Vice President Harris, running for president.<\/p>\n
At home in Los Angeles last Sunday after a campaign swing through Nevada, the nation\u2019s first second gentleman had a delayed flight. Deciding to make the most of \u201canother free morning in L.A.,\u201d he said, \u201cI thought I\u2019d just go to an exercise cycling class with some friends of mine.\u201d<\/p>\n
The attendees laughed, anticipating his punchline: \u201cI left my phone in the car.\u201d<\/p>\n
Emhoff enjoyed coffee after a spin class with friends until, after about 20 minutes, one of them showed him their phone, displaying the letter President Biden released declaring he was suspending his campaign. As a lawyer, Emhoff said, he skipped toward the end of the letter and assumed Biden was just writing that he would address the nation later in the week after recovering from covid.<\/p>\n
But his friend told him to read the paragraphs above, in which Biden said he would not seek reelection \u2014 and Emhoff and his Secret Service detail took off running to the car, where his phone was blowing up with people telling him to call Harris.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou could literally see steam and fire and smoke,\u201d Emhoff said of his phone, to even more laughter. He called Harris. \u201cShe\u2019s like, where the\u201d \u2014 then he paused, suggesting a missing word \u2014 \u201cwere you? I need you.\u201d<\/p>\n
Emhoff traveled to Wisconsin on Saturday for his first major campaign swing since Harris became the presumptive Democratic nominee, delivering brief remarks at the Hmong Wausau Festival, stopping for soft serve and kicking off a canvas launch at a local party office in Stevens Point. The second gentleman is no stranger to campaigning on behalf of his wife or the then-Biden campaign, but the switch in the ticket last week has revived attention on the man who could be the first gentleman.<\/p>\n
A former entertainment lawyer, Emhoff is viewed by many Harris supporters as the ultimate \u201cwife guy\u201d and a purveyor of dad jokes. He\u2019s co-starred in some of the Harris-related memes and fan edits taking over social media over the past week, with a photo of him when he was young going viral, as well as a photo in which he eagerly shows Harris his phone while she looks at him with skepticism. Some social media users even have mused that he is the true \u201cbrat\u201d in the relationship, referring to songs from a Charli XCX album used in many of the pro-Harris social media postings.<\/p>\n
Speaking in Wisconsin, Emhoff had plenty of jokes (such as suggesting he\u2019s \u201cjust a lawyer from L.A.\u201d who\u2019s often thrown into unpredictable circumstances given his White House role) and personal anecdotes to share, including meeting Harris on a blind date. But he also highlighted his experience traveling the world for the Biden administration, speaking at the Hmong community event about his trips to Asia and Harris\u2019s background as the daughter of an Indian immigrant. He leaned on his legal background when describing the election\u2019s role in shaping the future Supreme Court and the actions it could take to restrict access to contraception.<\/p>\n
He described \u201cmy wife, Kamala Harris, and her vision for the future,\u201d laying out the stakes while running through a list of popular Democratic policies. He also needled both former president Donald Trump and his running mate, Sen. JD Vance of Ohio, who have lobbed a grab-bag of attacks at Harris since she became the likely Democratic nominee.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019ve all seen how pathetic JD Vance is, what a weirdo,\u201d Emhoff said while at the canvass launch, where freshly printed Harris signs hung between now-vintage Biden for President signs and memorabilia from past Democratic campaigns. \u201cSeriously, this guy, the more you get to know him, the more it\u2019s just ridiculous.\u201d<\/p>\n
He also used his role to directly counter some of the Republican lines of attack against Harris, including Vance\u2019s three-year-old comments calling Democrats \u2014 including Harris \u2014 \u201ca bunch of childless cat ladies who are miserable.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cOver the last decade, she\u2019s not just been an amazing partner to me but a loving parent to two kids named Cole and Ella. From Day 1, she\u2019s been present, nurturing and fiercely protective of them,\u201d he said, referring to Harris\u2019s two stepchildren from Emhoff\u2019s prior marriage.<\/p>\n
He concluded his remarks with a direct message for Trump, drawing raucous applause.<\/p>\n
\u201cMr. Trump, I know you have so much trouble pronouncing her name,\u201d Emhoff said, hand on his hip before waving it through the air and leaning forward. \u201cHere\u2019s the good news \u2014 after the election, you can just call her Madam President.\u201d<\/p>\n
Voters who watched Emhoff speak in Wisconsin praised him and his humor and said they hoped to see him out more on the campaign trail.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think he\u2019s wonderful. It is not part of our country\u2019s history that the women stand up in front of their husbands and run for something like this \u2014 it\u2019s usually the woman\u2019s position to stand back and smile,\u201d said Nancy Foth, 74, a retired librarian who attended the canvass launch.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think this is amazing, and it\u2019s time,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
STEVENS POINT, Wis. \u2014 Doug Emhoff was late to learn his life had changed, he told an enthusiastic audience of Democratic volunteers Saturday as they prepared to knock on doors in support of his wife, Vice President Harris, running for president. At home in Los Angeles last Sunday after a campaign swing through Nevada, the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":6856,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6855","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6855","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6855"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6855\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6856"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6855"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6855"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6855"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}