MSNBC contributor Katty Kay discussed how Doug Emhoff is trying to reach male voters with a different vision of masculinity than of the Trump campaign.
MSNBC contributor Katty Kay said Vice President Kamala Harris’ and former President Trump’s campaigns were appealing to voters with “different” ideas about masculinity.
During a segment on “Morning Joe” on Friday, Kay teased her interview with second gentleman Doug Emhoff on her “The Rest Is Politics: US” podcast with Anthony Scaramucci. In the interview, Emhoff talked about giving up his career as a lawyer when Harris was tapped as President Biden‘s running mate in 2020.
“What would you say to young men who the Trump campaign is appealing to with a kind of slightly retro, macho view of what masculinity is?” Kay asked him. “Young men who might want to be in a position one day of supporting their spouse but are worried that it would diminish their own masculinity? Do you think now that you’re in a position to reach those young men?”
“It’s something I think about all the time,” Emhoff responded. “For me, it just came very naturally. I think it’s the era we kind of grew up in…For me it was very normal…and I think that’s why Kamala and I really bonded.”
“I’ve also learned I can’t lecture, I can’t be a scold. I can’t tell people what to do, especially in this area, I just have to say, ‘Look, here’s what I do, here’s why I do it, here’s why it’s important to me.’…Women succeeding doesn’t hurt men. It actually helps all of us…the economics prove it out.”
Emhoff added that men can be strong and defend their families while also being supportive of their wives’ careers.
“Both things can exist at the same time,” he said.
“Morning Joe” co-host Mika Brzezinski reacted to the interview on Friday’s MSNBC show, saying, “Boy, a contrast in many ways, between the two campaigns.”
There seems to be “two different views of masculinity,” Kay said, about the GOP and Democratic presidential campaigns.
“There’s this kind of alpha, retro view of masculinity we’re seeing from the Trump campaign, and then you got Tim Walz and Doug Emhoff, who are both professional men but are in sort of supportive roles of a woman who’s the principal candidate,” she continued.
Earlier in the program, Kay said that the Harris-Walz campaign was making efforts to reach male voters, as some polls show Harris’ support is being driven by likely female voters.
Kay said that Emhoff is hoping to “lead by example” with his own representation of masculinity to attract more male supporters to the campaign.
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“But he hopes that, leading by example, by talking about the fact that he loves his wife, that you can make space for women to the rise to the top and it wont diminish your masculinity. That’s really what he’s trying to do…and he’s authentic about it,” she said.
“He does a great job at that,” Brzezinski said. “I think he’s like a secret weapon for the campaign, in many ways.”
During the Democratic National Convention, CNN’s Dana Bash made a similar argument, saying that Democrats want to win over men who “understand that it’s OK in 2024 to be a man comfortable in his own skin who supports a woman.”
“They are doing so in trying to put forward male figures, Tim Walz being one of them, Doug Emhoff last night, who can speak to men out there who might not be the sort of testosterone-laden, you know, gun-toting kind of guy who wants to listen to Hulk Hogan and the kind of players that came out at the RNC,” she said.
Fox News’ Brian Flood contributed to this report.
