The 2024 election has left an indelible scar on the American psyche, a wound that refuses to heal. We were supposed to be celebrating the triumphant shattering of the highest glass ceiling, inaugurating our first Madam President.
Instead, we find ourselves trapped in a nightmarish déjà vu, watching in slack-jawed horror as a geriatric con man stumbles his way back into the Oval Office. But the real kicker? The MAGA folks couldn’t even let us lick our wounds in peace — just ask our Black American folks. No, they had to go after Kamala Harris‘ stepdaughter, Ella Emhoff.
After a photo surfaced of Emhoff crying at Harris’ concession speech, right-wing trolls pounced, spreading vicious rumors that the 25-year-old had suffered a mental breakdown and been hospitalized. Never mind that she was simply expressing a perfectly normal, healthy emotional response to a gutting disappointment.
But if the MAGA mob thought they could bully Ella into submission, they picked the wrong target. This is a young woman who’s been fearlessly charting her own course since day one, defying expectations and shattering stereotypes with every bold step. She wasted no time in firing back at her attackers.
In a take-no-prisoners Instagram story, she called out the bottom-feeding rumor-mongers directly, writing “There’s a nasty rumor about me having a mental breakdown and getting checked into a hospital. Not true. Also, a giant f— you if you’re out there gleefully spreading that malicious crap.” She went on to passionately defend the fundamental right to express emotion, adding “There’s not a damn thing wrong with showing emotion and crying. Anyone who says there is probably needs a long, cathartic ugly cry themselves.”
Emhoff’s mother, Kerstin, also jumped into the fray with both feet, taking to X to mercilessly slam the “steaming pile of MAGA bs” being sadistically hurled at her family. “Leave my kids alone!!!” she wrote.
Sadly, Kerstin’s plea for decency fell on deaf ears in some corners of the internet. One particularly despicable MAGA troll had the audacity to suggest that a 25-year-old crying in public was somehow not okay, comparing Emhoff to a toddler throwing a tantrum.
Thankfully, saner heads prevailed, with one commenter aptly noting:
More people rallied to the Emhoffs’ side:
Ella is a blindingly bright, wildly accomplished young woman who’s a Parsons School Design graduate, model, and fashion designer. Ella has also been named one of Harper’s Bazaar‘s 2022 fashion icons. Apart from that, she has every inalienable right to express her emotions openly, passionately, and honestly, without the slightest fear of being cruelly mocked or demonized by a pathetic bunch of impotent keyboard warriors with way too much time on their hands.
At the end of the day, the MAGA crowd’s behavior towards Ella is just another nauseating example of their depraved willingness to gleefully go to any immoral lengths to rabidly defend their orangutan-haired dear leader. It’s a profoundly sad, disturbing commentary on the toxic state of our political discourse, but it’s incredibly heartening to see extraordinary people like Ella and Kerstin confidently stand up to the knuckle-dragging bullies with inspiring grace and unbreakable strength.
And if there’s one silver lining to this whole sordid affair, it’s the way it’s brought the Emhoff-Harris clan closer together than ever. In a heartfelt interview earlier in 2024, Kerstin spoke glowingly of Harris’ invaluable role as a loving co-parent to her kids, effusively calling her “incredibly loving, nurturing, fiercely protective, and always present.”