John Nichols, national affairs correspondent for The Nation, said former Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s (D) policy and leadership record should disqualify him for a position in the Biden administration.
In an interview with Hill.TV, Nichols said the bipartisan opposition to Emanuel means he might have difficulty getting confirmed if President Biden nominates him.
“The interesting thing is that Rahm Emanuel makes enemies, and he’s made a lot of them over the years, in part because he’s not very nice to people,” he said.
Nichols said Emanuel has a “devastating record” from his time as Chicago mayor. Following the murder of Laquan McDonald by a Chicago police officer in 2014, Emanuel was criticized over the delayed release of video of the incident which came in the midst of his reelection campaign.
Emanuel is said to be the front-runner to be Biden’s nominee as ambassador to Japan.
Nichols said the strongest opposition to his potential nomination would come from those who worked with Emanuel in Chicago.
One former Biden aide has previously said that if Emanuel is nominated, he will have staunch allies but will have opponents from the left and right.
Nichols said Emanuel demonstrated through his positions in the Clinton and Obama administrations his passion for neoliberalism and trade deals in conjunction with those policies. He said if Emanuel is nominated to be an ambassador to China or Japan, he would be in a position to take previous “disastrous” trade deals like the Trans Pacific Partnership and take them to the next level.
“By the nature of those ambassadorships, the person who is sent there is very central to establishing a lot of our trade policies, a lot of our economic policies – and there’s also military policy as well,” Nichols said.
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