U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) is demanding Congress nix President Joe Biden’s nomination of former Chicago mayor Rahm Emanuel for ambassador to Japan in light of his response to the police shooting of Laquan McDonald, calling it “deeply shameful.”
“This nomination is deeply shameful. As mayor of Chicago, Rahm Emanuel helped cover up the murder of Laquan McDonald – a mere teenager when he was shot 16 times in the back by a Chicago Police Officer,” Ocasio-Cortez declared in a statement. “This alone should be flatly disqualifying for any position of public trust, let alone representing the United States as an ambassador.”
“That the Biden administration seeks to reward Emanuel with an ambassadorship is an embarrassment and betrayal of the values we seek to uphold both within our nation and around the world,” Ocasio-Cortez added. “I urge the Senate to vote NO on his confirmation.”
The shooting of the 17-year-old resulted in a $5 million settlement with McDonald’s family. Former police officer Jason Van Dyke was convicted of second-degree murder in the case and was sentenced to nearly seven years in prison in 2018. Other officers testified that McDonald posed a threat at the time he was shot but police video footage reportedly indicated otherwise.
Statement on the nomination of Rahm Emanuel as ambassador to Japan ⬇️ pic.twitter.com/5CW861pd7k
— Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@RepAOC) September 1, 2021
Emanuel allegedly kept the video footage under wraps until he was ordered by a judge to release it over a year later. It was ruled that the state had violated records laws by not releasing it previously.
The former mayor aggressively denied a coverup. In January 2019, Officer Thomas Gaffney, former Officer Joseph Walsh, and former Detective David March were all found not guilty of obstruction of justice, official misconduct, and conspiracy. The three men were colleagues of Van Dyke’s.
The Justice Department launched a federal investigation into the Chicago Police Department in 2015 and subsequently found that officers were poorly trained and prone to excessive force.
Emanuel refused to resign following the accusations, according to The New York Times and ultimately ran for re-election. He fired the police superintendent and appointed a task force to review potential reforms to the department but that did not clear his reputation with those on the left.
Emanuel’s critics have contended that he is guilty of a coverup regardless of legal findings. Ocasio-Cortez has been one of his most vocal antagonists. Her attack against Emanuel occurs just days after she joined a progressive pressure campaign to preemptively oppose any effort to reappoint Jerome Powell as Federal Reserve chair by Biden.
The Squad calls on Biden to dump Fed chair over climate change and ‘racial and economic justice’ https://t.co/2vpVGtO0is pic.twitter.com/VWC9sobXmE
— Conservative News (@BIZPACReview) September 1, 2021
She is not alone. Other progressives, including New York Representatives Jamaal Bowman and Mondaire Jones, opposed Emanuel for any nomination when Biden considered him for transportation secretary. Their statements reflect intense anger at Emanuel in the progressive ranks.
“Rahm Emanuel should not be considered for any position within the Biden administration,” Bowman tweeted in November, according to Bloomberg.
The Nation is calling the nomination a sick joke:
“If it weren’t such an insult, the nomination of Rahm Emanuel to be this country’s ambassador to Japan would seem like a perverse backroom joke. Send the foul-mouthed, sharp-elbowed, impudent prima donna to ruffle the feathers of the proper and mannered Japanese officialdom. Bets will soon be taken on how long it takes Rahm, for whom “f**king” serves as adjective, adverb, verb, and noun, to issue his first formal apology.”
Emanuel previously served as White House chief of staff for former President Obama. Biden’s nomination of Emanuel was announced in August.
Rahm Emanuel will find no support, sympathy, or love on the left or the right it would seem and politics makes for strange bedfellows:
Washington is a club, Rep Ocasio-Cortez—for the most part. A revolving door for insider Dems and Republicans
It’s why nothing ever changes
— Emoluments Clause (@Emolclause) September 1, 2021
People of Illinois did not support Rahm Emmanuel when he was mayor. Review his history and find someone honest and ethical to be an ambassador.
— Diana (@dstrzalka_diana) September 1, 2021
That’s great! NO EMANUEL!
— AbolishTheGop (@PizonChristine) September 1, 2021
Go figure! It’s your Party continuing their plan to obliterate the USA. Day by day it’s never ending and beyond embarrassment.
— Michele Mele (@Irishmitchee) September 1, 2021
What Rahm Emanuel has to do with anything Japanese related I’ll never know. 🤷🏾♂️
— Brent Bush (@BrentBush) September 1, 2021
Nothing. Biden is continuing the horrible tradition of using Ambassadorships as political patronage jobs to reward allies, contributors, and friends.
It’s a horrible, corrupt tradition that does nothing for US diplomacy except to reduce our international credibility.— Michael Fletcher (@mefletcher54) September 1, 2021
Dude couldn’t even run Chicago and gets a raise? This is what’s wrong with this country. It’s about who you know and what pockets to grease.
— DL (@LuckyDinero) September 1, 2021
Rahm Emanuel should never be allowed into governance again.
He is hostile to constituents and rather incompetent at his jobs going back for decades.
— Richard L Adlof (@RLAdlof) September 1, 2021
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