Following the 2024 election, Rahm Emanuel is making moves usually associated with someone who wants to run for president, Politico reported.
Emanuel, who recently served as ambassador to Japan and previously served as mayor of Chicago, a three-term congressman, and chief of staff to then-President Barack Obama, has been blanketing the airwaves and op-ed pages since returning from Tokyo.
"I'm not done with public service and I'm hoping public service is not done with me," Emanuel told Politico.
In speeches, Emanuel has begun road testing a possible presidential campaign speech, unafraid to criticize the Democrat Party, Politico said.
"I am done with the discussion of locker rooms, I am done with the discussion of bathrooms, and we better start having a conversation about the classroom," Emanuel said at a recent lecture. "We can lead a discussion and force a topic onto the agenda of this country that's worthy of having a debate about. The New York Times put crumbs all the way to the front door of the USAID headquarters and we just walked along back there."
In an appearance on "Real Time With Bill Maher," Emanuel lamented the party's handling of transgender issues.
"In seventh grade, if I had known I could've said the word ‘they' and gotten in the girls' bathroom, I would've done it," he said. "We literally are a superpower, we're facing off against China with 1.4 billion people and two-thirds of our children can't read eighth grade level."
Even if Emanuel loses in a Democrat primary, a presidential run could catapult him to a high-profile cabinet position.
"If you run for any other office, you win or lose," David Axelrod, who worked with Emanuel in the Obama White House said. "But if you run a smart, spirited race for president you can elevate yourself. So why not jump in the pool?"
Emanuel has also earned praise from Republicans.
"Rahm Emanuel is the best all-around player for the Democratic Party,'" said Rep. Tom Cole, D-Okla., who served with Emanuel in the House. "Who else has been as successful as a political operative, a party leader, an elected official, a high-level staffer and a diplomat?"
While Emanuel has never lost a race, he declined to run for a third term as mayor of Chicago, following clashes with the teacher's union and his handling of the fatal shooting of Laquan McDonald by a Chicago police officer.
If he ran, he'd face fierce opposition from the party's left flank and the McDonald shooting could doom his support among Black voters.
"I'm not sure people in South Carolina know or care who Rahm Emanuel is," Gilda Cobb-Hunter, a longtime South Carolina Democrat lawmaker told Politico. "His connection to Barack Obama is decades old. We're in a different time."
Sam Barron ✉
Sam Barron has almost two decades of experience covering a wide range of topics including politics, crime and business.
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