Jus days after Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff sat down with MSNBC host Jen Psaki and suggested he “reshaped the perception of masculinity” with his support for Vice President Kamala Harris, disturbing allegations of violent domestic assault against Emhoff have his wife’s presidential campaign in damage control.
According to a Daily Mail report, three unnamed friends told the outlet that Emhoff supposedly struck his then-girlfriend — a successful New York attorney — in the face so hard she spun around while in a valet line after an event at the Cannes Film Festival in May 2012.
All three sources requested not to be named due to fear of retaliation from Emhoff, this according to the Daily Mail report.
Here is a breakdown of what happened, according to the friends.
The woman – who was not identified — allegedly called one of the friends sobbing in her cab immediately after the incident, the outlet said.
“It was hard to hear her because she was sobbing. She told me she was with a guy and he hit her,” the source, a New York businessman, recalled.
“It was very clear what she was telling me. She said she was with a guy, her date, she was at the Cannes Film Festival, and he hit her. She was in the car with the guy at the time.
“I didn’t know what to do, I didn’t know whether to call the French police. I couldn’t get a hold of her after calling back.”
The friend claimed that he got more details about what happened later on.
“In later conversations, but pretty contemporaneous with that, she told me more about the guy,” he added.
“It was something like 3 a.m. They were trying to get out of there and they both had been drinking. There was a gigantic line for taxis.
“[Jane] went up to one of the valet guys, offered him 100 Euros or whatever, to get to the head of the line. She told me she put her hand on his shoulder. Doug apparently thought that she was flirting, and came over and slapped her in the face.”
Jane slapped Emhoff back, the businessman said.
“My impression is that he had a lot to drink. She was sobbing [on the phone afterwards], but she wasn’t slurring her words,” he said of Jane’s conversation with him right after the incident.
“She told me that she broke up with him that night.”
The pair had been dating for about three months, the Daily Mail said.
The Daily Mail report also noted that a second friend – another New York-based female attorney said that Jane also told her about the incident.
“They had dinner. She said Doug was very charming, and it was lovely. Then I believe it was between 2-3am, it was still raging, but she was wearing four-inch heels and a floor-length gown, so it was time to depart,” the lawyer said.
“She said there’d been no fight before he hit her. You would have thought it was this fairytale trip.”
Jane was “completely caught off guard” by Emhoff’s sudden attack, she added.
“He hauled up and slapped her so hard she spun around. She said she was in utter shock.
“She was so furious, she slapped him on one side, and then on the other cheek with the other hand.”
All three friends said that Jane tried to leave following the assault, but that Emhoff forced his way into the cab with her, according to the Daily Mail.
“All of a sudden the car was there and they were ushering her into the car,” the attorney friend said.
“She said she wanted to go back to the hotel without him. But while she was shutting the door, he forced himself into the car, which she did not want.
“I think she asked him ‘what the f–k was that all about?’ in the car, and the only thing she could really get out of him was that he thought she was hitting on the valet.”
Jane was “so embarrassed” by what happened, the friend said.
“She couldn’t believe he is the person that he is, and that it turned into this trailer trash moment,” she lamented.
“She realized he was bad news. This was the first time she saw his ugly side.”
Jane called her businessman friend because she wanted, “Doug to see her on the phone, telling somebody,” they explained.
“She felt that would afford her some protection.”
The third friend – described as a female executive at a top company – said Jane told her about what happened in 2018, when then-Senator Harris was in the news for grilling Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh over sexual assault allegations, according to the Mail.
“[She] is a gorgeous, strong woman and you would never expect somebody to hit her,” she told the Daily Mail.
Emhoff was allegedly unapologetic, she added.
“When he hit her she hit him back, like, ‘Don’t you ever do that again,’ she said.
“I asked her if he ever apologized. She said no, but he commented about the hit she gave him. It was a tennis metaphor. But no apology at all.
“He was a tennis fan,’ said the female attorney. ‘All he said to her was, ‘Don’t worry about it, you got one across the court and down the line.’”
Jane found Emhoff’s reaction “hurtful,” but “she didn’t want to feel like a victim,” the executive explained.
Emhoff allegedly ended the trip early to return to Los Angeles for his daughter Ella’s 13th birthday – and he and Jane never saw each other again, the three friends said.
The shocking allegations came just two months after Emhoff admitted to cheating on his first wife following a bombshell report that alleged he once got their nanny pregnant.
“During my first marriage, Kerstin and I went through some tough times on account of my actions. I took responsibility, and in the years since, we worked through things as a family and have come out stronger on the other side,” Emhoff told CNN in August.