21st Century Wire says…
It’s not that far away. Guess who wants to run for president in 2020?
Just before the New Year bell rung, the embattled Chicago Mayor Rahm Israel Emanuel (D) was forced to cut short his family vacation in Cuba, and headed back to the windy city after yet another embarrassing police shooting last week which claimed two lives as police responding to a ‘domestic disturbance’ call killed 19-year-old Quintonio LeGrier, an engineering student at Northern Illinois University, and bystander 55-year-old Betti Jones, a grandmother.
Last week, 100 people, family and activists, held a vigil for the victims. The Mayor has attempted a sort of mea culpa this time, but the public is not buying it, mainly because this was the second major high-profile police shooting incident to rock city hall in the last month.
TROUBLE IN HIS KEEP: The LaQuan McDonald shooting has rattled the ‘dynasty potential’ of Chicago’s Rahm Emanuel.
Currently serving his second term in office, the 56-year-old mayor is going from one crisis to the next, as tensions continue to simmer after the initial controversy, the killing of 17-year-old Laquan McDonald who was shot 16 times by city police on camera – which prompted angry mobs demanding ‘The King’ step down.
There could be a political price to pay for all of this. Not only are #BlackLivesMatter on the rampage over these latest shooting events, but also LeGrier’s mother, Janet Cooksey, appeared on national TV last Sunday at a news conference, wearing a T-shirt emblazoned with the face of Mayor Emanuel with the words “Rahm Failed Us.”
Throughout the debacle, Emmanuel has not given in to the public pressure, even though his approval rating has plummeted 20% since hostilities began. On top of this, Chicago has earned the reputation of “murder capital of America”, despite the mayor’s staunch liberal policy of “gun-free zones” across the city which some critics credit towards creating a criminal’s paradise. The Mayor is already on shaky ground. Only last winter, Emanuel narrowly survived a close run-off election to keep his job in office.
All of this has the potential to cast a shadow over Emanuel’s political future, which is likely to include a Democratic Party presidential run in 2020. It’s reported that Emanuel already has a substantial campaign war chest ready to go, billions of dollars in fact, thanks to some very wealthy backers. If Emanuel does go ahead with the 2020 plan, the driving force behind his campaign will be his Hollywood mogul brother, Ari Emanuel, who will spare no expense in terms of PR, marketing and advertising for his brother’s political drive to the White House. Part of the newly found Emanuel family fortune derives from their early investment in the virtual taxi service sensation, Uber, with the Emanuel investment estimated to be valued over $1 billion alone. This is not without controversy however, as it was Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s deregulation of Chicago’s taxi industry that helped Uber shares to skyrocket in value. Critics are saying that there was a conflict of interest there, but in today’s seedy political environment of insider trading and open criminality, it might be hard for any politician to pull rank over that issue. Add to this the potential hundreds of millions more in donations that Emanuel will receive from Jewish property tycoon Sheldon Adelson, and also from Jewish billionaire and Emanuel’s fellow anti-gun advocate, Michael Bloomberg – and all in the interests of serving Israel, and you can see how Emanuel could be viewed as a 2020 Democratic front-runner already.
The Mayor emerged on to the DC sewer scene as part of the Clinton-Obama Chicago political machine. He’s been described by AFP’s Victor Thorn as, “More sinister than Karl Rove and potentially deadlier than Dick ‘Darth Vader’ Cheney”. Back when Emanuel was Barack Obama’s chief of staff in 2008, many commentators remarked on his psychopathic behavior, including his frightening Machiavellian exhibition in a White House meeting where he said the administration’s political enemies need to, “Die, die, die!”, as he stabbed the table in anger, reportedly using either a pen, or letter opener (regardless, that’s a bit scary). Enough to scare the American people considering this is a man who most likely has his eyes on the White House.
DUAL LOYALTIES: Rahm Emanuel might have a hard to time putting US interests ahead of Netanyahu’s.
The other strange bone of contention about Emanuel as a candidate is that he is reportedly a dual citizen (although its believed he gave up his Israeli citizenship at 19 years old) who shares a national identity between the United States and Israel, and actual served in the IDF briefly after college. According to Mondoweiss, “Emanuel left when the Gulf War broke out, in order to volunteer in the IDF. He served in one of Israel’s northern bases until the war ended, and upon his return to the US became Clinton’s advisor in the White House for almost eight years.”
Emanuel can often be seen in the presence of Israel leader and Zionist extremist, Bibi Netanyahu, which raises the real prospect of Tel Aviv finally having its very own US president embedded in the White House.
The fundamental question here is: when it comes down to the crunch, which country’s interest would Emanuel be more loyal towards, the US, or Israel. Contrary to popular Republican belief sets, you cannot wear allegiance to both, because no matter how hard the Israel Lobby tries to portray it – both countries have very radically different national and social interests.
If this issue sinks any further down the cesspit of public outrage, expect Emanuel’s Hollywood PR machine to go into overdrive.
READ MORE ISRAEL NEWS AT: 21st Century Wire Israel Files
