What followed has been a crisis and tsunami of antisemitism.
I saw it coming.
For a couple of years now, Emhoff has been a key White House voice on combatting antisemitism.
Doug EmhoffJulia Nikhinson/Sipa via AP Images
We saw that with Charlottesville and Tree of Life and so on through the first couple of years.
I knew that I needed personally to use this platform to do something more.
And a lot of that is directed at Jewish students at college campuses.
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And youre seeing the protests, and youre seeing the slogans.
Social media, he said, has exacerbated the situation, including from prominent voices.
Thats what we need, and we need coalitions.
We need to bring the coalitions back together.
Right now, theres a lot of discourse thats not positive among groups.
My message is: I love being Jewish.
I am proud to be Jewish.
I am not going to live in fear.
I am not going to be afraid.
Emhoff spent decades practicing law in Los Angeles, on issues ranging from contract disputes to intellectual property lawsuits.
It prepared me a lot, he said.
You have got to be able to deal with very stressful situations.
You have have got to have good negotiation skills.
You have got to have good political skills.
(They also have a daughter, Ella, an artist).
Its in my blood, he said.
Of the recently settled actors and writers strike, Emhoff said that he is relieved.
Im glad its over.
I saw that bandied about, he said.
It was nice to see that, but no.
So, luckily, intervention was not needed.
I knew coming in it was all hands on deck.
But those are things that we do as a couple.
I dont think I would deign to do that by myself.
We do it together.
A focus has been on bringing people together from music, arts and sports, he said.
He also visited Abbey Road Studios and did a roundtable on combatting hate.
Harris, meanwhile, was attending the summit on artificial intelligence.
We love movies, we love to watch things together, but these are long days.
Among the shows they love, he said, areGame of ThronesandHouse of the Dragon.
This is just a very binary situation, he said.
We have got to save our democracy.
We have got to save our freedom.
Emhoff said that the way he reacts to the negative coverage is to ignore it.
Because that comes with the territory.
Our fight for freedom, our fight for democracy, is just too important to focus on any nonsense.
