OFF TO TOKYO

Rahm Emanuel, Mr. Diplomacy, Is Picked to Be Biden’s Ambassador to Japan

Bare-knuckle Obama chief of staff and controversial former mayor of Chicago is tapped for delicate and prominent post in Asia.

President Joe Biden has chosen former Mayor of Chicago Rahm Emanuel as his ambassador to Japan, The Financial Times reports. The nomination must still be confirmed by the Senate. Emanuel has had a long run in politics, best known for being Barack Obama’s first White House chief of staff and as a hard-nosed member of the Democratic leadership in the House of Representatives from 2003 to 2009. He was also a senior adviser to then-President Bill Clinton.

In the beginning of his presidency, Biden reportedly considered Emanuel as a potential secretary of transportation, but ended up choosing Pete Buttigieg, the former mayor of South Bend, Indiana. During his time as mayor of Chicago, Emanuel was criticized for his resistance to the 2009 stimulus package as well as his delaying of the release of bodycam footage of the police killing of Black teenager Laquan MacDonald until after his 2015 campaign for re-election, Bloomberg News noted.