Emhoff’s reaction to the hostage killings underscores the unique way he speaks on Harris’ behalf

CNN
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The killing of six more Israeli hostages marked another critical moment for Doug Emhoff, who is speaking out for himself and Kamala Harris as only a Jewish American and the wife of a presidential candidate can.

“In light of the re-emergent trauma of the tragedy of the weekend, speaking here, even though it is so difficult to do, is a way for me to use that voice,” the second gentleman said Tuesday at a vigil for the hostages in Washington, D.C.

For Emhoff, it’s a reflection of historical circumstances: He has often spoken of how he reconnected with his Judaism after seeing the reaction he received when Joe Biden chose Kamala Harris for his ticket four years ago. Then, as second gentleman, he felt compelled, first by the rise of anti-Semitism and then by the Hamas terrorist attacks of Oct. 7, to speak out about how hurt he was.

Today, with his wife suddenly a Democratic candidate and both thrust more into the spotlight — and the world approaching the anniversary of those attacks and the ensuing war on Gaza — friends and advisers say they see a man who continues to search for his own answers to a problem that is at once political, policy and personal. And advisers and campaign aides are trying to tailor strategy to a manager whose emotions and determination have struck them in both his private and public remarks.

As Donald Trump attacks Jews who vote for Harris as self-haters, it was Emhoff who sat in the front row of Tuesday night’s vigil — organized by a collection of Washington-area Jewish groups and held at the Adas Israel synagogue — wiping tears from his eyes, then struggling to speak of his grief as he stepped to the microphone.

“It’s hard,” he said, telling the hundreds gathered that he was there “as a member of the congregation, as a mourner and as a Jew.”

“When Doug talks about how the vice president has encouraged him to connect with his Jewish faith and take on anti-Semitism, that can be encouraging to Jewish voters,” a friend of Emhoff’s told CNN. “But it also highlights how supportive they are as a couple, the connection they both have to faith, and that’s important for all voters to know.”

As Biden has stepped up public pressure on Benjamin Netanyahu to agree to a cease-fire and a hostage-release deal, some outside allies have suggested that the Israeli prime minister is instead trying to maneuver in Trump’s favor. And with voters on all sides unsure where Harris stands on the issue, each twist of events could complicate her efforts to win in Michigan, which has large Arab and Jewish populations, but also other key battlegrounds where Jewish voters are larger than the margins of victory in 2020.

Several people who know Emhoff said the killing of Hersh Goldberg-Polin hit him particularly hard. He knew the 23-year-old’s parents. He had just seen them at the Democratic National Convention. The pain of knowing that the hostage, who was just a few years younger than his daughter, had been killed days before her body was found was overwhelming. It left him raw. One person who knew him told CNN that going to the vigil was a way for him to stand up as a leader, but also a way for him to stand with his community amid the horror and shock.

“What you’re all feeling right now is what I’m feeling. And what we’re all feeling is something that Kamala hears directly from me almost every day,” Emhoff said Tuesday night. “I share what I feel with Kamala as a partner, as a wife — not just as vice president. She knows. She understands. She cares. She’s committed. Hersh’s loss is so personal to both of us, as it is to all of you.”

Ted Deutch, a former Florida congressman and current CEO of the nonpartisan American Jewish Committee, praised the second gentleman as he introduced him at the vigil for “reminding the world that an attack on one of us is an attack on us all.”

“He understands the unique agony of feeling that our cries for justice have not been heard and yet he knows that our strength lies in our unity,” he added.

Emhoff has long stressed that he had no political role in the administration or the campaign, and he continues to have none. But the perspective has changed: Until six weeks ago, he was married to a leader who was deferential to Biden’s policies. But after being elevated to the Democratic nominee, his wife is under scrutiny for any changes she might make to Israeli policy.

Campaign aides say they expect Emhoff to continue to play a key role as he travels the country campaigning and fundraising, with anxiety already growing about how the Oct. 7 anniversary will play out less than a month before Election Day.

Emhoff says he will not stop speaking out, linking the need to repeatedly remind the world of what happened to the events of the Holocaust.

“If we don’t tell this story again and again,” he said at the vigil, “we have no hope of ‘Never Again.'”