Chicago politicos are scrambling to quell reports of a Rahm Emanuel run for the White House, in the hours before President Obama is expected to visit the city to discuss his second-term agenda.
“He’s not running for president,” said Sarah Hamilton, a spokeswoman for Mr. Emanuel, in a Chicago Sun-Times report. And in May 2012, the newspaper continued, Mr. Emanuel said similarly, in a note to the Sun-Times City Hall reporter: “I, Rahm Emanuel, will not run for another office — EVER.”
The whispers of a White House run for the controversial mayor started in a Daily Beast report.
Well-connected Democrats said Mr. Emanuel was mulling a 2016 run for the presidency, but only if former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton decided not to seek the office, The Daily Beast reported on Thursday. Other Democrat strategists — James Carville and Paul Begala, both from the Clinton era — doubted the claims, in The Daily Beast report. But the rumors persist.
“I heard there were some conversations with donors, especially during the inauguration,” said one unnamed Democratic Party politico, in The Daily Beast.
• Cheryl K. Chumley can be reached at cchumley@washingtontimes.com.
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