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Rahm Emanuel Quotes

Rahm Israel Emanuel is an American politician, who is the 44th and current mayor of Chicago. A member of the Democratic Party, Emanuel was elected in 2011, and reelected on April 7, 2015.

Born in Chicago, Emanuel is a graduate of Sarah Lawrence College and Northwestern University. Working early in his career in Democratic politics, Emanuel was appointed as director of the finance committee for Bill Clinton's 1992 presidential campaign. In 1993, he joined the Clinton administration, where he served as the assistant to the president for political affairs and as the senior advisor to the president for policy and strategy before resigning, in 1998. Beginning a career in finance, Emanuel worked at the investment bank Wasserstein Perella & Co. from 1998 for 2½ years, and served on the board of directors of Freddie Mac.

In 2002, Emanuel ran for a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives vacated by Rod Blagojevich, who resigned to become governor of Illinois. Emanuel won the first of three terms representing Illinois's 5th congressional district, a seat he held from 2003 to 2009. During his tenure in the House, Emanuel held two Democratic leadership positions, serving as the chair of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee from 2005 to 2007, and as the chair of the House Democratic Caucus, from 2007 to 2009. After the 2008 presidential election, President Barack Obama appointed Emanuel to serve as White House chief of staff.

In October 2010, Emanuel resigned as chief of staff to run as a candidate in Chicago's 2011 mayoral election. Because of questions over his eligibility to run for mayor, Emanuel's candidacy was initially rejected by the Illinois First District Appellate Court, though he was later found eligible to run in a unanimous decision by the Supreme Court of Illinois. Emanuel won with 55% of the vote over five other candidates in the non-partisan mayoral election, succeeding 22-year incumbent Richard M. Daley. Although Emanuel failed to obtain an absolute majority in the February 2015 mayoral election, he defeated Cook County board commissioner Jesús "Chuy" García in the subsequent run-off election in April.

In late 2015, Emanuel's approval rating plunged to "the low 20s" in response to a series of scandals, most directly the police shooting of 17-year-old Laquan McDonald, the city's subsequent attempts to withhold a video of the shooting, and the lack of an investigation into the matter. In early December 2015, the federal Justice Department announced an investigation into the operations of the Chicago Police Department, a move which Emanuel initially opposed. At one point, half of Chicagoans favored Emanuel's resignation, with highly critical evaluations of the mayor appearing in such sources as The New York Times and The New Yorker, and coming from such figures as the Reverend Al Sharpton.By July 2017, Emanuel was said to have raised $1.6 million towards a potential run for a third term in the 2019 election, and although his approval ratings had not recovered to 50%, he had made steady progress in recovering his political support. He initially announced in October 2017 he planned to run for a third term, but on September 4, 2018, Emanuel reversed this decision and stated he would not seek a third term due to personal obligations.

✵ 29. November 1959
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Rahm Emanuel: 9   quotes 0   likes

Famous Rahm Emanuel Quotes

“This is an ironic choice for a president-elect who has promised to change Washington, make politics more civil and govern from the center.”

Rahm Emanuel

House Minority Leader John Boehner on Obama's hiring Emanuel as White House Chief of Staff, as quoted in San Francisco Chronicle http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/11/06/MN6C13VKH5.DTL&type=politics.
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“(Mother's Day) is a tough holiday for Rahm Emanuel because he's not used to saying the word "day" after "mother."”

Rahm Emanuel

President Barack Obama, during the 2009 White House Correspondents Dinner. http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/remarks-president-white-house-correspondents-association-dinner-592009
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“Rahm Emanuel is son of the devil's spawn. He is an individual who would sell his mother to get a vote. He would strap his children to the front end of a steam locomotive.”

Rahm Emanuel

Rep. Eric Massa (D-NY). http://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2010/03/08/massa_rahm_emanuel_would_sell_his_own_mother_for_votes.html
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“[Obama White House] rescued the economy from the worst recession.”

Rahm Emanuel

Obama goes prime-time to pitch healthcare http://www.upi.com/Top_News/2009/07/22/Obama-goes-prime-time-to-pitch-healthcare/UPI-38611248259706/, UPI, July 22, 2009.

“You never want a serious crisis to go to waste. … This crisis provides the opportunity for us to do things that you could not before.”

Rahm Emanuel

Interview to the Wall Street Journal, November 19, 2008. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_mzcbXi1Tkk About the quote: Emanuel was not the first to express this idea, as pointed out in a 2009 New York Times Magazine article https://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/02/magazine/02FOB-onlanguage-t.html. However this statement - which proposed a way the Obama administration could actually harness the chaos of the Financial Crisis of 2008 - became a frequently-repeated slogan https://www.forbes.com/2008/11/24/global-crisis-management-lead-management-cx_snj_1124joni.html#1ac549f65e5e for many economists, policy makers and business people who sought to improve the world's financial and economic systems.
/ 2000s

“With Rahm, you get someone who is both a great strategic thinker and a great tactician. It's great to have someone who knows the Congress inside and out. There can often be major differences between the executive branch and the congressional branch, even when you're from the same party. It will certainly help in terms of getting things done.”

Rahm Emanuel

Chris Van Hollen, quoted in San Francisco Chronicle http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/11/06/MN6C13VKH5.DTL&type=politics.
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“Chief of staff is the only White House job with two titles: chief and staff. The first allows for structure and accountability. The second, well, just remember whose name was on the ballot, check your ego at the door and understand you're there to serve the President and ensure that his—or, someday, her—vision is being executed. When I had the role, I used to joke on Fridays, "Lucky us, just two more workdays until Monday." It's an all-consuming, thankless job—but walking through those gates at the beginning and end of each day, no matter how early or late, brings a tingle to your spine. The day that goes away is the day it's time to go.”

Rahm Emanuel

Time magazine, April 20, 2017. http://time.com/collection/2017-time-100/4736339/reince-priebus/

“I have a lot to weigh: the basis of public service, which I've given my life to, a career choice. And most importantly, what I want to do as a parent. I know something about the White House. That, I assume, is one of the reasons that President-elect Obama would like me to serve. But I also know something about what it means to a family.”

Rahm Emanuel

Quoted in San Francisco Chronicle http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/11/06/MN6C13VKH5.DTL&type=politics.

“Two of Chicago’s four city pension funds will be bankrupt within a few years, according to Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel. You’d think that’s a scenario unions – the supposed champions for public-employee retirements – would want to avoid.
But not in Chicago. Unions are fighting to block any kind of pension reform, effectively locking in bankruptcy for city-employee pension systems.”

Rahm Emanuel

Benjamin VanMetre, Unions to Bankrupt Chicago Pension Funds https://www.illinoispolicy.org/unions-to-bankrupt-chicago-pension-funds/, IllinoisPolicy.org, December 29, 2014
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