Eric Russell speaks during the Reject Rahm news conference at the Chicago Public Safety Headquarters on Oct. 19, 2021. (Vincent D. Johnson/for the Chicago Tribune)
Rahm Emanuel will face a Senate confirmation hearing on his appointment as the U.S. ambassador to Japan on Wednesday, which also marks the seventh anniversary of the defining event of his tenure as Chicago mayor — the police murder of Laquan McDonald.
The timing had activists expressing outrage Tuesday as they suggested the hearing should be delayed and echoed calls from some high-profile progressive Democrats in the U.S. House for Emanuel’s appointment to be voted down.
No Senate Democrats, however, have said they will vote against Emanuel’s confirmation and a White House source said Tuesday that the administration has “very strong confidence” that Emanuel will be confirmed. While it’s possible a few Democrats ultimately could vote no, that is likely to be outweighed by Emanuel’s support among Republicans, two White House sources said.
Three Senate Republicans have publicly expressed support for Emanuel’s appointment and a fourth, Sen. Bill Hagerty of Tennessee, will introduce Emanuel before the committee, according to a source with knowledge of the proceedings who was not authorized to speak publicly. Hagerty, who served as ambassador to Japan under former President Donald Trump, has supported few Biden political appointments.
Emanuel is still likely to face some pointed questions about his record as Chicago mayor at the hearing, where he will appear alongside Jonathan Kaplan, Biden’s nominee for ambassador to Singapore. Sen. Dick Durbin, an Illinois Democrat, is expected to offer opening testimony in support of Emanuel, a source confirmed.
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In advance of Emanuel’s moment in the Senate spotlight, some progressives in Washington and activists in Chicago renewed their opposition to the former mayor’s appointment, citing his handling of McDonald’s death. The politically savvy Emanuel countered with letters of support from Black aldermen and community leaders as well as a surprise endorsement from the Rev. Marvin Hunter — McDonald’s great-uncle.
In a letter addressed to the Foreign Relations Committee, Hunter wrote that his faith is “based on redemption and forgiveness and I have always believed in the power of turning misery into meaning.” In the letter, first obtained by The Washington Post, Hunter wrote that he reached out to Emanuel through an intermediary.
Mayor Rahm Emanuel arrives at the south air traffic control tower at O'Hare International Airport on April 22, 2019, in Chicago. (Antonio Perez / Chicago Tribune)
“His response was immediate, open and genuinely engaging,” Hunter wrote of Emanuel. “During our many conversations, we listened to each other, we prayed together and I believe we began the process of healing.
“There is more to this individual than the caricature that is presented in the public,” Hunter continued. “I felt what is in his heart, and I know him to be a decent and honorable man who is willing to listen, eager to learn and show a deep level of compassion.”
Hunter, who is the senior pastor at Grace Memorial Baptist Church in North Lawndale, did not return messages seeking comment Tuesday. Emanuel declined to comment.
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About 20 activists who gathered at the Chicago Police Department’s headquarters in Bronzeville Tuesday morning expressed anger at Hunter’s letter, with some characterizing him as a sellout to a Black community that has fought hard to raise awareness about police brutality in Chicago.
Activist Eric A. Russell, executive director of Tree of Life Justice League Illinois, said he called Hunter about his support for Emanuel, saying “the conversation did not go very well.” Russell, whose group advocates for police accountability, said the pastor’s letter was “absolutely disgusting and in bad taste” since the “blood of Laquan McDonald is dripping from Rahm Emanuel’s hands.”
“Shame on you Pastor Hunter!” Russell shouted to applause from fellow activists. “You set Black folks back when you co-sign for the architect who designed the killing of our children. How do you write a damn letter, Rev. Hunter, when Laquan McDonald was flesh of your flesh, blood of your blood?”
Progressives long have accused Emanuel of covering up McDonald’s murder, contending that his actions should disqualify him from public service. Emanuel repeatedly has denied that he or his administration engaged in a cover-up.
A vote from the Foreign Relations committee is expected to come a couple of weeks after the hearing.
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The former mayor’s nomination then likely would be sent to the Senate floor as part of a package of ambassadors submitted for final confirmation. That vote is expected to happen by the end of the year, but a firm timeline is uncertain.
Emanuel, a high-profile Capitol Hill operator who served in Congress and as a top adviser to two presidents, has spent weeks meeting privately with members of the Senate.
The three Republicans who have voiced support for Emanuel are moderate Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, retiring Sen. Roy Blunt of Missouri and Sen. Lindsay Graham of South Carolina, a top ally of former President Donald Trump.
Durbin and Sen. Tammy Duckworth, another Illinois Democrat, also have voiced support for Emanuel along with a handful of other Democrats, including Sens. Michael Bennet of Colorado, Jon Tester of Montana and Chris Van Hollen of Maryland.
The Senate is split 50-50 between the two parties, with Vice President Kamala Harris serving as the tie-breaking vote when necessary. While no Democrats in the chamber have said they would oppose Emanuel’s confirmation, many have yet to say how they will vote, including progressive stalwart Bernie Sanders of Vermont.
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Progressives in the U.S. House have been more vocal, with Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez calling Biden’s appointment of Emanuel “deeply shameful” and “an embarrassment and betrayal of the values we seek to uphold both within our nation and around the world.” U.S. Reps. Jamaal Bowman and Mondaire Jones, both of New York; Cori Bush of Missouri and Rashida Tlaib of Michigan also have urged fellow progressives to rally against Emanuel.
“When elected officials use their power against Black lives, they should not receive this honor,” Bowman said of Emanuel’s nomination. “We still remember Laquan McDonald.”
The small group of activists gathered Tuesday in Bronzeville channeled a similar spirit, saying Emanuel should not be rewarded with a plum foreign post after he fought in court for nearly a year to suppress the police dashcam video of McDonald being shot 16 times by then-Officer Jason Van Dyke.
Aislinn Pulley, a co-founder of Black Lives Matter Chicago, said holding Emanuel’s confirmation hearing on the anniversary of McDonald’s death was “an intentional slap in the face.” Pulley said the appointment signals Biden is not serious about pursuing police reform in the wake of George Floyd’s death at the hands of a Minneapolis police officer.
Aislinn Pulley speaks at the Reject Rahm news conference held outside Chicago Public Safety Headquarters on Oct. 19, 2021. (Vincent D. Johnson/for the Chicago Tribune)
The president, Pulley said, was rewarding Emanuel for conducting the “heinous act” of “covering up the murder of a young person.”
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“How can you have the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act on one hand and then on the other hand nominate someone who is the face of a police cover-up and murder? It is just unbelievable to me,” longtime Chicago political consultant Delmarie Cobb said at Tuesday’s news conference. “Rahm Emanuel’s nomination is the epitome of hypocrisy and insult. We are here to say, ‘Reject Rahm Emanuel.’ He should never hold another office of public trust.”
Echoing previous sentiments from its national president, the Illinois State Conference and Chicago Westside Branch of the NAACP also issued a statement Tuesday rejecting Emanuel’s appointment, saying that his “his past actions and approach to governing are detrimental to the American people.”
White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki defended Emanuel’s nomination to reporters Tuesday, saying he was “somebody who has record of public service, both in Congress, serving as a public official in the White House, and certainly also as the mayor of Chicago.” Pressed on the argument that Biden’s appointment of Emanuel suggests he isn’t committed to meaningful police reform, Psaki repsonded, “The president’s record, commitment to police reform speaks for itself.”
In insisting there was no cover-up of the McDonald shooting, Emanuel has said the city followed protocol at the time not to release police video of a shooting under investigation.
The images of Van Dyke pumping round after round into the body of the 17-year-old McDonald, many of them as he lay in the street, quickly became international news. The Cook County medical examiner’s report showed McDonald was shot in the front and back of his torso, and in his arms and legs.
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Van Dyke was convicted of second-degree murder in 2018 and is serving a prison sentence of six years and nine months.
In November 2015, a Cook County judge ordered the mayor to release the graphic footage, which showed Van Dyke shooting McDonald in the middle of a Southwest Side street as the Black teen walked away while holding a small folding knife.
On the same day Emanuel made the video public, then-State’s Attorney Anita Alvarez charged Van Dyke with murder, and it soon was revealed that several officers’ accounts of the shooting in police reports varied dramatically from the video.
Those reports and the delay in the murder charge, combined with the fact that Emanuel’s administration and aldermen paid a $5 million settlement to the McDonald family before a lawsuit was even filed, led to accusations of a City Hall cover-up, calls for Emanuel’s resignation and weeks of street protests during which the chant of “16 shots and a cover-up” was born.
In his letter to senators, McDonald’s great-uncle contended Emanuel “inherited a deeply flawed system and set of policies as it relates to police misconduct investigations,” a system “twisted” to keep incidents “buried.”
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“Certainly, his administration could have acted more quickly to address these issues and rebuild trust in our communities,” Hunter wrote of Emanuel. “He has acknowledged as much and more in public and in our private conversations.”
Hunter also criticized politicians who expressed outrage over Emanuel’s handling of McDonald’s death without ever reaching out to his family to “offer even the simplest condolences.”
“I draw a line when it is clear that certain elected officials are using the sacred memory of my nephew to settle political scores or use his name as a weapon to fight intraparty battles,” Hunter wrote.
Many big-name establishment Democrats have backed Emanuel, including former President Bill Clinton, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and House Majority Whip James Clyburn, the highest-ranking Black member of Congress. Emanuel also has highlighted support from key Black officials in Chicago, including former Chicago Urban League President and CEO Andrea Zopp and nine of the City Council’s 20 Black aldermen.
In a letter to the Foreign Relations committee, the aldermen touted Emanuel’s investments in South and West Side neighborhoods, the expansion of the school day and year, the implementation of full-day kindergarten and the overhaul of the Red Line South. The letter was signed by Aldermen Jason Ervin, 28th; Michael Scott Jr., 24th; Greg Mitchell, 7th; Howard Brookins, 21st; Michelle Harris, 8th; Stephanie Coleman, 16th; Walter Burnett, 27th; Emma Mitts, 37th; and Anthony Beale, 9th.
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“Mayor Emanuel’s decades of public service as well as his energy and tenacity for tirelessly representing the interests of his constituents, have prepared him well for this important mission on behalf of the United States,” the aldermen wrote. “There are few nominees more qualified or committed to the president’s goal of returning America to the world stage in a position of strength and moral leadership.”
bruthhart@chicagotribune.com
Twitter @BilRuthhart
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