Rahm Emanuel, President Joe Biden’s pick to serve as ambassador to Japan, is the latest nominee to divide Democrats while awaiting confirmation in the slow-moving Senate.
New York Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez slammed the selection of Emanuel, the former mayor of Chicago, to represent the United States in Japan and urged the Senate not to confirm him.
The New York liberal called Emanuel’s nomination “deeply shameful” because he presided over the city when police shot 17-year-old Laquan McDonald. A Chicago police officer was ultimately convicted of second-degree murder in that case.
City leaders faced widespread criticism after the 2014 shooting for initially withholding the footage of McDonald’s murder, then charging the officer who shot him only after the footage became public months later.
“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 said in a statement on Wednesday. “I urge the Senate to vote NO on his confirmation.”
BIDEN MOVES QUICKLY ON CONFIRMING JUDGES, LAGS BEHIND WITH OTHER VACANCIES
Emanuel — a close Obama ally who was the White House chief of staff when Biden was vice president — is not the only former, current, or prospective nominee to divide Democrats as Biden struggles to get many of his picks over the finish line in the Senate.
At the 200-day mark of his presidency, Biden had fewer than half of the confirmations former President Barack Obama had secured and slightly fewer former President Donald Trump, who faced widespread criticism for how slowly he filled the upper echelons of his administration.
Ocasio-Cortez joined with fellow progressive Reps. Rashida Tlaib and Ayanna Pressley on Monday to call on Biden not to renominate Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell for another term, as he is reportedly considering.
The liberal lawmakers called on Biden to replace Powell with a Federal Reserve chairperson who would shift the institution’s focus toward “eliminating climate risk and advancing racial and economic justice,” they said in a joint statement provided to Politico.
Powell’s term will end early next year, but Biden is expected to unveil a pick for his replacement soon.
Biden’s choice to lead the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives has faced headwinds in the Senate amid fierce Republican opposition and resistance from a handful of Senate Democrats.
David Chipman, a former ATF agent, has been an outspoken advocate for restricting gun rights and has come under fire for making statements about the 1993 siege of a compound in Waco, Texas, that were proven false.
Chipman also faces allegations he made racist comments about black ATF agents, leading Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee to demand Chipman sit for a second confirmation in July.
Chipman’s nomination has languished in the Senate since April, with Democrats struggling to get their members in line to confirm him on a party-line vote. Sen. Angus King, a Maine Independent who caucuses with Democrats, has been a key holdout — although other Democrats have not yet emerged in support of Chipman.
Democratic skepticism of Biden’s budget director pick sank a Cabinet-level nomination earlier this year after Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin emerged in opposition to her, and Senate Democratic leaders failed to recruit a centrist Republican to replace his vote.
Neera Tanden, the original nominee to lead the Office of Management and Budget, faced scrutiny for her long history of inflammatory social media posts and withdrew from the confirmation process in March.
Biden’s pick to lead the Bureau of Land Management is stalled due to an aggressive effort by Senate Republicans to block her controversial nomination.
Tracy Stone-Manning was involved in an ecoterrorism incident in the 1980s, for which she received immunity to testify against her friends. Stone-Manning mailed a letter alerting authorities her associates had driven metal rods into trees, a practice known as tree-spiking, that could harm loggers.
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A vote on her nomination in the Senate Environment and Natural Resources Committee deadlocked in late July, preventing her nomination from moving directly to the Senate floor and delaying her confirmation.
For now, Democrats appear poised to push forward with her nomination with 50 votes and a tiebreaking vote from Vice President Kamala Harris.
