Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff admitted this weekend that an affair with his family nanny ended his first marriage.
In doing so, he did not address the question of whether the nanny became pregnant (as alleged by the UK Daily Mail) or had an abortion. But that is not the only pressing question, given that Vice President Kamala Harris is attacking Trump as a convicted “felon” over hush money to hide an affair more distant (2006) than that of her husband (2009).
1. Did Emhoff coerce the nanny into having an abortion, giving a child up for adoption, or in any other way? He was a wealthy and well-connected Hollywood entertainment lawyer; she was just a nanny. The massive power imbalance between the two would have been impossible to ignore, and is the stuff of classic #metoo accusations. Did Emhoff coerce the nanny, Najen Naylor, into making a decision about her own body?
2. Did Emhoff, Harris, President Joe Biden, or anyone else pay the nanny to keep quiet? Rumors of the affair emerged during the 2020 campaign but were hushed up. The nanny, the Daily Mail reported, lives in the upscale Hamptons in New York. Was she paid to keep quiet? Were there non-disclosure agreements? If so, were they listed as campaign expenses? If not, then whoever paid her can be prosecuted in New York as Trump was prosecuted.
3. Why is the media silent about this? The main Sunday morning news shows devoted no attention whatsoever to the Emhoff story, whereas they gave the Stormy Daniels story wall-to-wall coverage, over days and weeks, when it emerged in the early years of Trump’s presidency. The personal lives of politicians may be their own business — but not when they are trying to shame, prosecute, and imprison their opponents for what seem far milder transgressions.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of “”The Agenda: What Trump Should Do in His First 100 Days,” available for pre-order on Amazon. He is also the author of “The Trumpian Virtues: The Lessons and Legacy of Donald Trump’s Presidency,” now available on Audible. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.
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