Doug Emhoff made his first appeared as a guest on Jimmy Kimmel Live last night and took the opportunity to respond to Donald Trump‘s many attacks on his wife Kamala Harris.
Host Jimmy Kimmel jokingly asked Emhoff, “What was your reaction when your wife turned Black? Were you surprised?”
“All that stuff, you know, it’s a distraction,” Emhoff replied. “We can joke about it, but it’s literally a distraction, so all the insults, all the things coming at her, coming at me, coming at our family, it’s really a distraction from what they are trying to do.”
Emhoff told Kimmel that Harris’ presidential campaign has completely changed their lives. “It’s like being shot out of a cannon,” he said. “That day when she got the call and I of course was stuck here in LA and didn’t hear about it for 30 or 40 minutes, since that moment it’s just been hustle, hustle, hustle.” He added that there’s “almost no happy couple time anymore” because Harris is focused on winning the election.
Elsewhere in the 15-minute interview, Emhoff talked about growing up in Los Angeles, working at McDonald’s in high school, and what it’s been like being the country’s first-ever Second Gentleman. He confirmed that he has not been part of Harris’ debate prep nor her selection of Tim Walz as her running mate.
“The last thing I am going to do is give her advice on something she is really awesome at,” he told Kimmel. “If she asks me something I will let her know what I think, but we really try to keep that separate because we really want to be there for each other, our family, our kids, all that stuff.”
Emhoff did note that he expects Harris to win the upcoming debate with no issues. “As she is preparing for the debate, somebody asked me, ‘Well what is it like debating her? You are both trial lawyers. Have you ever?’” Emhoff recounted. “I said, ‘No, I have never won one.’ And so I am looking forward to this.”
Emhoff also discussed his role as Second Gentleman, in which he has become an advocate for gender equality and has stood up against the rise of anti-Semitism. “I was a Hollywood lawyer,” he said. “I was an entertainment lawyer right here in this community for 30 years. I loved it, every minute of it, and it was a little jarring to go from that to get put on the Biden Harris ticket and spend all that time getting them elected. Then it’s like, ‘Okay what do you do now?’”
Harris and Trump will hold their first debate in Philadelphia on Sept. 10. The debate will air on ABC News.
