Politico Really Needs a Hobby — Assigns 6 Reporters to Scoop That 2nd Dude Doug Emhoff Now Goes By ‘Douglas’
This is huge, if true, but Politico is reporting that Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff is now being referred to as “Douglas Emhoff” in official White House press releases and other documents!
On January 20, Emhoff became the first second gentleman in U.S. history by virtue of his marriage to Vice President Kamala Harris, the first woman to hold that post. But did you know that “Doug” has just been shorthand for “Douglas” this entire time?
If not, Politico Playbook has the 600-word-plus scoop for you this week in a deeply-reported and six-reporter-bylined item entitled “Doug Emhoff rebrands as Second Gentleman Douglas.”
During her presidential primary campaign, KAMALA HARRIS’ husband DOUG EMHOFF always went by Doug. During the general election, after JOE BIDEN tapped Harris to be vice president, his campaign advised Emhoff’s appearances with “Doug.” While his Twitter handle was @DouglasEmhoff, his Twitter account name remained “Doug.” His webpage at his most recent law firm DLA Piper still lists him as “Doug” (though his email address used “Douglas”). An old high school classmate also said he went by “Doug.”
But Doug is no more.
He is henceforth DOUGLAS EMHOFF, second gentleman of the United States of America.
Starting about a week before the inauguration, guidance for Emhoff from the Biden transition and inaugural committee began to adjust his name from Doug to the more ceremonious Douglas, according to a review of their press releases and advisories. The White House has kept true to that style change in advising the second gentleman’s daily activities.
His Twitter name for the new @SecondGentleman account is now “Douglas.” His faculty page at Georgetown Law uses, you guessed it, “Douglas,” as does the White House’s website.
And on it went for a further 400 words or so, including a notation that fancy Douglas isn’t the only one to employ this sort of moniker manipulation.
Emhoff isn’t alone in changing up his public-facing name. When Harris was in the Senate, she often insisted that he staff include her middle initial: D. For Devi. Aides often used the shorthand “KDH” when referring to their boss. While she was “Kamala Harris” on the campaign trail, her Senate website presented her as “Kamala D. Harris.” Her White House page has her name both ways.
With such a hefty portion of their staff devoted to this story, you would think they’d have dug into this “Joseph R. Biden” guy who keeps popping up on White House communications.
And as it turns out, the idea that Emhoff suddenly switched things up in January is undermined by their own reporting, in a way. Yes, Politico sleuths sussed that Doug’s Georgetown faculty page does, indeed, identify him as “Douglas” now, but if they’d only assigned a seventh reporter, they might have tracked down the announcement of Emhoff’s hiring, which was entitled “Georgetown Law Welcomes Douglas Emhoff to its Faculty.”
Ever since President Joe Biden took office, the political press has been operating in what could charitably be described as a content-challenged environment, but is this where we’re headed?
