OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.
HBO’s “Real Time” host Bill Maher is questioning why the corporate media, by and large, has ignored allegations of violence against Second Husband Doug Emhoff, recently raised by a former girlfriend.
“There’s a lot of scuttlebutt in the news this week about Doug,” Maher said in a panel discussion on Friday’s “Overtime” online segment of his HBO show.
“If people don’t know what’s going on, the Daily Mail is reporting that three women [Emhoff’s ex-girlfriend] talked to contemporaneously, which has been the standard very often in these cases, that she said back in, I think, 2011 or something, they were at the Cannes Film Festival. He slapped her. He thought she was flirting with the valet.”
“He knocked up the nanny, right? That’s confirmed,” conservative radio host Buck Sexton interjected.
“That’s confirmed. He definitely knocked up the nanny,” Maher responded, chuckling.
“What I’m saying is, if this becomes more credible- and we don’t know yet. I mean, a lot of the conservative outlets still aren’t reporting it, so I wouldn’t go after anybody for not reporting it yet because these things have to be checked out,” Maher continued. “But if it becomes more credible, certainly on the level of Brett Kavanaugh, which was that kind of thing was reported by everybody pretty quickly. Does the liberal media keep ignoring it?”
“Yes, they will. Absolutely,” Sexton answered.
“Wouldn’t that make it look worse?” Maher then asked.
For the record, four of Kavanaugh’s accusers were found to have been lying. In fact, a group of GOP senators made criminal referrals to the Justice Department regarding four accusers who allegedly lied under oath, but nothing ever came of them.
Emhoff, who was celebrated by the media as a positive example of masculinity, has recently found himself at the center of controversy. He confirmed that he had an extramarital affair with the family nanny, which resulted in her becoming pregnant and ultimately led to the end of his marriage to his first wife, Kerstin Emhoff.
“During my first marriage, Kerstin and I went through some tough times on account of my actions,” Emhoff said in a statement. “I took responsibility, and in the years since, we worked through things as a family and have come out stronger on the other side.”
The Daily Mail subsequently reported serious allegations against him, including an incident in 2012 where he reportedly “forcefully slapped” his then-girlfriend, as well as claims of “inappropriate” and “misogynistic” behavior during his time leading the LA law firm Venable from 2006 to 2017.
Since the controversies emerged, nearly every media interviewer has steered clear of the topic while speaking with Emhoff. However, when MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough referenced “tabloid stories” about him, the second gentleman did not deny the allegations.
“[Trump’s] spreading it about you, saying that tabloid stories about your personal life. He’s saying it should be front and center. He’s saying it about your wife and making incredibly crude and lewd suggestions about her past life. I’m just curious, I know I seem like a very zen, mindful person, but I think I’d be pissed off, and I’m just wondering, how do you all stay centered, how do you stay disciplined and not really go off and not really push back hard at these things?” MSNBC “Morning Joe” host Joe Scarborough asked.
“We don’t have time to be p***ed off,” Emhoff responded without denying the report. “We don’t have time to focus on it. It’s all a distraction. It’s designed to try to get us off our game.”
“Does it get you off your game?” Scarborough replied.
“No. All we are doing – all we talk about – is this election,” Emhoff said.
“We understand the stakes, we understand the responsibility,” he added. “Our very country, our future – what kind of future are we going to have, who would you like picking the next three Supreme Court justices? The guy who picked the three who overturned Roe v. Wade and want to take away more freedom?”
