A local affiliate of CBS in New York is reporting that Charles Rangel, the embattled former chair of the House Ways & Means Committee, is retiring after 23 terms in the House of Representatives.
The 85-year-old has spent 46 years on Capitol Hill. Rangel wanted to leave office at the same time as the first black president, and survived a bruising primary in 2014 to do so. Rangel officially announced his decision to retire Wednesday, as confirmed by CBS News. “I wanted so badly to complete the last year with President Obama, and even though they never gave him a fair opportunity to do all the things that I really had dreamed that we could do together, I would be so annoyed with myself had I retired a couple of years ago,” Rangel told WCBS 880’s Jane Tillman Irving.
A call to Rangel’s Washington office confirms he is not seeking another term.
