How Kamala Harris' husband's cheating scandal could help Trump, expert says
Kamala Harris' husband's affair could shield former President Trump from the other side of the aisle attacking him as a serial womanizer, a top public relations expert told Fox News Digital.
Doug Emhoff cheated on his first wife, Kerstin Emhoff, with their daughter's blond nanny and impregnated her, the Daily Mail reported last week. After Kerstin learned about the affair, the couple ended their 19-year marriage.
Emhoff promptly admitted to the infidelity in a statement to CNN.
"During my first marriage, Kerstin and I went through some tough times on account of my actions," Emhoff told the outlet. "I took responsibility, and in the years since, we worked through things as a family and have come out stronger on the other side."
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New York City-based PR maven Juda Engelmayer said the sordid headlines could kneecap Democrat attempts to once again tar Trump as a lifelong cad to sway voters – especially women.
"As much as they talk about Donald Trump being a womanizer, there are some skeletons in their closet, which could be seen as hypocrisy," Engelmayer, who is CEO of the firm Herald PR, told Fox News Digital.
While Trump has never shied away from his reputation as a playboy, Democrat politicians, Engelmayer observed, tend to portray themselves as morally upright.
"If the Republicans are smart they’d capitalize on it," he said. "Everyone knows Trump’s history, and he wears it almost like a badge. When you’re voting for Donald Trump you’re not voting for Mother Theresa. But the Democrats claim they’re above this."
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Engelmayer said the campaign made the right call by swiftly acknowledging the indiscretion. Harris knew about the affair before they married, and the Biden 2020 campaign uncovered it when vetting her for vice president, CNN reported.
"To not comment makes it look like you are hiding something and to deny it is to lie," Engelmayer said. "Those would have been the worst approaches. They didn’t do that."
While the Emhoff stories were damaging, Engelmayer said those opposed to Trump are likely to brush them off come election day.
"I tend to think that most of the mainstream media as well as political pundits and advocacy groups are very adamant they don’t want Donald Trump to win, so anything that goes on in the Harris-Walz camp right now is going to be excused," he noted.
But Emhoff's indiscretions, he said, could have an impact on independent voters – at least those who still exist.
"The voters who are blind Democrats or Republicans, it won’t matter to them," he argued. "But the voters who care about issues and what these people stand for, it will matter."
Todd Shapiro, who has guided prominent clients for more than four decades, speculated that the affair will quickly dissipate in the minds of voters.
"It will have no impact in this race at all," said Shapiro, who founded Todd Shapiro Associates. "If anything, it’s something Trump can use to neutralize his alleged extramarital affair allegations and make the issue moot."
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Shapiro said affairs do not sting politicians like they once did and that social mores have shifted.
"I think Donald Trump pretty much took away any controversy regarding using the word affair in a political context," he said. "In places like France, having a president being involved in an extramarital affair as long as it doesn’t affect his job as a president has no impact on the office of the presidency."
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He also stressed that Emhoff's dalliance predated his affiliation with the vice president.
"It’s her husband’s past life," he said. "It’s a black eye for him from decades ago. It really isn’t about her."
Emhoff shares two children with his ex-wife. He married Harris in 2014, and she has been stepmother to his children.