Interview with Doug Emhoff: Second Gentleman talks about the alarming rise in anti-Semitism, 2023 and the Vice President and how Hollywood helped shape his role

On the wall next to a picturesque window overlooking the White House grounds in Doug Emhoff’s sun-filled corner office hangs a handmade rectangular carving that reads “SECOND LORD” in capital letters.

When Vice President Kamala Harris’ husband and veteran entertainment attorney took on this newly appointed role, it was, as he put it, “an open page.” His wife’s election as the nation’s first female vice president meant that for the first time there would be a male wife of one of the White House executives.

Almost three years into his job, Emhoff said circumstances shaped his work more than anything else. In particular, in recent years he has become a leading voice on anti-Semitism and expanded his portfolio to include other topics such as gender equality and mental health.

That role, Emhoff said in an interview with Deadline this week, “evolved to help the government in any way possible, and unfortunately with the rise of hatred and the rise of anti-Semitism even before October 7, as the first Jew .” “Leader. As a person who would one day become director of the White House, this was a real no-brainer for me.

At the lighting of the menorah on the Ellipse this month, Emhoff spoke at several round tables, meetings with hostage families and other events about his conversations with representatives of the Jewish community. “The common denominator in these conversations is that we feel alone, we feel hated and we feel pain,” Emhoff said in his comments.

In the interview, Emhoff described not only the terrible nature of the 10/7 attacks, but also Hamas’s reactions – “the happiness, the laughter makes it so much worse.” What followed was a “crisis” and a “tsunami of anti-Semitism”.

“There’s an anger that I think a lot of us feel [about 10/7]I will always feel it, but unfortunately I always experienced the shock of anti-Semitism,” said Emhoff. “Objectively speaking, by ADL standards and FBI standards, we’ve never seen anything like anti-Semitism since October 7th, but unfortunately I’m not shocked by it. I saw it coming.”

Emhoff has been an important voice in the White House in the fight against anti-Semitism for several years. He spoke at an event in May unveiling the government’s national strategy to combat anti-Semitism, organized roundtable discussions and toured Germany and Poland in January, including a visit to the site of the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp

“I knew that anti-Semitism was definitely on the rise,” Emhoff said. “We saw it in the early years with Charlottesville and Tree of Life and so on. We saw some Kanye [West] said and [white supremacist] Nick Fuentes and the banner on our freeway, the 405. I knew I personally had to use this platform to do something more.”

When asked why the number of anti-Semitic hate incidents increased after 7 October. has increased so much, Emhoff said he has a kind of “simplistic answer”: “People look at American Jews and blame those Jews for the actions of Jews.” “The Israeli government they disagree with and the actions they disagree with are essentially equated with that of the Jewish people,” he said. “And a lot of it is aimed at Jewish students on college campuses. And you see the protests and you see the slogans. Many people are completely unable to hold more than one or two things in their heads at a time, and they confuse problems.”

He said social media has exacerbated the situation, including through prominent voices. To address that, the White House plan calls for education, security, combating misinformation and disinformation, and counterprogramming, he said.

“So for everything that’s terrible that Kanye has [West] says we need others to step up and … talk not only about how anti-Semitism is bad, but also about who Jews are and how great they are,” Emhoff said. “This is what we need and we need coalitions. We need to bring the coalitions back together. At the moment there are many discussions in the groups that are not positive. We need to bring all these groups back together and fight this epidemic of hate together, because it’s not just anti-Semitism, it’s Islamophobia, anti-LGBTQ hate – we’ve fought it all because it’s all connected.

Emhoff said he has spoken with figures like Pink, “who very publicly celebrate her Jewish heritage.” He warned that he “can’t force anyone to do anything”, but what he does do is come forward and have a conversation.

“It’s all about leading the way, and that’s why I’ve been so public from the beginning,” he said. “My message is, ‘I love being Jewish.’ I’m proud to be Jewish. I won’t live in fear. I won’t be afraid. I’m going to be as open as possible to hopefully show other people that if I can do it, so can they.”

Joel Goldstein, Vice Presidential Scholar and Emeritus Professor of Law at St. Louis University School of Law, said that as the first second lord Emhoff “played a very active and constructive role in this position.”

“As a leader in the administration’s efforts to combat anti-Semitism, his work has complemented that of Vice President Harris in his efforts to make America more inclusive,” Goldstein wrote by email. By taking such an active role, Goldstein said, Emhoff helped “expand the government’s ability to pursue its programmatic goals.”

Emhoff practiced law in Los Angeles for decades, handling issues ranging from contract disputes to intellectual property litigation. He was a managing director at Venable and later a partner at DLA Piper, but left that firm after the 2020 election. He said he also used his Hollywood experience to pursue the government portfolio while also the ultimate supporter of his wife, the former Senator and Attorney General of California.

“It prepared me a lot,” he said. “I’ve worked in all areas of Hollywood and to be successful there you have to have a lot of tools in your toolbox. You must be able to handle very stressful situations. You must have good negotiation skills. You must have good political skills. It takes several qualities to be successful as a Hollywood lawyer, and that’s what I did for 30 years. And it turns out that many of these skills are there too [are important] – to convey a point of view, stay calm under pressure, understand people, listen more than talk, have a certain level of empathy for other people’s positions – because in Hollywood we all have to work together.”

Emhoff’s son Cole works in the industry and his ex-wife, producer Kerstin Emhoff, owns a production company. (They also have a daughter, Ella, an artist). Although not in practice, the Second Gentleman still teaches entertainment law at Georgetown Law School and keeps up with what’s happening in the industry. “It’s in my blood,” he said.

In relation to the recently concluded actors’ and writers’ strike, Emhoff appeared “relieved”. “I’m glad it’s over. I’m glad the parties came together and reached an agreement, and I wanted Hollywood to go back to doing what it does: creating content for everyone.”

At one point during the strike, Emhoff’s name was even mentioned as someone who might be able to help organize the strikes, but he did not participate. “I’ve seen it go around,” he said. “It was nice to see that, but no. It had to happen the way it did, with all parties coming together themselves and finding a solution. Fortunately, no intervention was necessary.”

When Emhoff assumed the position of second man, the question was whether he would take on some of the traditional duties of a second man, such as choosing china or wallpaper. It was a bit of a throwback to previous gender roles, as even some of Emhoff’s predecessors – including Jill Biden and Karen Pence – had typical problems.

“When I walked in, I knew it was all hands on deck. I had to travel the country and help people get vaccinated, get the economy going again, and just meet people and hear what they need and respond as a government,” said Emhoff. “I didn’t have time for that, although over the years I worked with the vice president and her team on the more traditional things. But these are things we do as a couple. I don’t think I would venture alone. We will do it together.”

A typical day, Emhoff said, starts in the morning “with me just being there, helping her start her day as a good man and getting her out there as a vice president, and then he focuses on my day, and it’s really a mixed bag.”

The focus is on bringing people from music, art and sport together, he said. For example, on a recent trip to London, he met with the Chelsea team to discuss how to combat racism. He also visited Abbey Road Studios and held a panel on combating hate. Meanwhile, Harris attended the Artificial Intelligence Summit.

“We try to spend time together as a couple, and she loves to cook, so she does it when she can,” Emhoff said. “We love movies, we like to watch things together, but these are long days. She is vice president 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, and much of the work can be done in the middle of the night. Shows they love, he said, include: game of thrones And House of the Dragon.

Emhoff has already spearheaded fundraisers and mailings for the Biden-Harris re-election campaign, which is shaping up to be a very tight and very sharp campaign cycle. Given the likelihood of a rematch between Biden and Trump in 2024, Emhoff is already framing the election as a stark decision.

“It’s literally a battle between saving our democracy and someone out there talking about poisoning, poisoned blood and fascism,” Emhoff said.

“It’s just a very binary situation,” he said. “We must save our democracy. We must save our freedom. Coming from this entertainment community: freedom of expression, freedom of creativity, freedom of the press: all these things are at stake.”

Given Biden’s age, Republicans have already made Harris a target of their attacks, which are likely to continue through the general election. Emhoff said he responded to the negative coverage by “ignoring” it. Because it comes with the territory. Our fight for freedom, our fight for democracy is simply too important to focus on nonsense.”