A woman who claimed second gentleman Doug Emhoff slapped her has gone public with the details of the incident.
Emhoff, the husband of Vice President Kamala Harris, admitted in August — after a U.K.’s Daily Mail report — that while married to a former wife, he had an affair with his daughter’s nanny and got her pregnant.
The Mail reported earlier this month that Emhoff was accused of violently striking a woman he was dating at the time during the Cannes Film Festival in 2012. A representative of Emhoff told Semafor that the “report is untrue.”
Now the woman identified as “Jane,” is offering details, according to the Mail, which said it has authenticated the part of her story in which she claims she was with Emhoff in France in May 2012.
The woman, described as a New York lawyer, said that what had been a wonderful trip turned sour as she was waiting in line for a taxi.
“I decided, I’m going to go up to the valet and give them 100 bucks to get out of this line. I put my hand on the valet’s shoulder and tell him, with my $100, could you please get me a car as soon as possible,” she said.
“As I’m talking to him, Doug got out of the line, comes up, turns me around by my right shoulder. I’m completely caught off guard. I’m not bracing. I’m in four-inch heels, wearing a full-length gown, and it’s between 2-3 a.m.,” she said.
“He slaps me so hard I spin around, and I’m in utter shock,” she said, adding that until that moment, everything had been perfect. She said, she then slapped him back with each hand.
“In that moment, his mask had dropped, and I saw his dark side,” she said.
She said, Emhoff forced his way into the taxi she entered.
“I’m embarrassed and humiliated that this amazing experience turned into this violent spectacle,” she said.
“I can’t believe he just slapped me. I think I said to him in the car, ‘What the hell is wrong with you? Why did you do that?’ And the only thing I could get out of him was he thought I was hitting on the valet,” she said, adding that she called a New York friend about the incident, which the Mail said the friend confirmed.
“This was the first time I saw Doug’s ugly side,” Jane said.
“I was in shock. I wanted somebody to know where I was and what happened. I was freaked out because I thought I knew this person. But I don’t, and he’s in the car with me,” she said, adding that the next day, Emhoff offered no apology.
She said she severed ties with Emhoff afterward, adding that she is revolted with fawning media accounts that proclaim him to be an ally of feminists.
“What’s frightening for a woman that’s been on the other end of it, is watching this completely fabricated persona being portrayed,” Jane said. “He’s being held out to be the antithesis of who he actually is. And that is utterly shocking.”
She said, she was disgusted that most media outlets have not investigated her allegation.
“This is a big deal, why doesn’t anybody in the media care?” she said, adding, “It’s just so clear what’s happening. I’m so disgusted.”
The Mail has reported that while Emhoff was at the law firm Venable, he delighted in putting women he did not like in their place and put looks ahead of brains in his hiring and other activities.
