LAS VEGAS (KTNV) — A person could make the argument that Rahm Emanuel is the most qualified candidate thinking of running for president in 2028.
A former staffer for President Bill Clinton, who worked on children's health insurance. A former congressman from Illinois. A former chief of staff to President Barack Obama, perhaps the most important job in any administration. A former mayor of the nation's third-largest city. And, most recently, a former ambassador to Japan, one of the United States' most critical allies.
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And Emanuel is definitely thinking about it, he told Channel 13 in an interview in Las Vegas on Wednesday.
"Yeah, I am thinking about it. You evaluate where the country is," he said. "I think the biggest challenge we have is that the American dream has become unaffordable, inaccessible, and to somebody that's been a beneficiary of the American dream, it's unacceptable that it's so out of reach."
Affordability has become a buzzword for Democrats, as promised reductions in costs of goods haven't materialized in the second Donald Trump administration. But Emanuel doesn't shy away when asked for specifics that he'd offer on the campaign trail.
He said he'd offer a $25,000 first-time homebuyers tax credit, and reorient federal housing funders Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac toward helping would-be homeowners buy their first house. He also questioned why people can take a mortgage tax deduction on a second home while many struggle to buy a first.
"We've broken faith, and we've got to acknowledge it," he said. "And I don't mean to get theoretical, the moment the American dream becomes unaffordable is exactly when our democracy became unstable. People are really ticked off, and they deserve to be ticked off because they got sold a bill of goods."
Emanuel also has come out for a ban on people younger than 16 using social media sites such as TikTok, Facebook and Instagram. He says the addictive algorithm has effects on kids' social and educational lives.
"I don't think a 13-year-old has the moral judgment and foundation to manage through Instagram, TikTok and Facebook, and parents are not strong enough to take on Facebook by themselves," he said. "We're either going to empower parents, or we're going to let Instagram's algorithms raise kids. And I'm for parents."
Speaking of young people, Emanuel said he'd draw from his experience as mayor to help improve schools. In the Windy City, officials made both the school day and the school year longer, offered college classes in high school and granted free community college to any student who achieved a B grade average or better.
Not only that, he said, but to earn a diploma, all students were required to notify the school district what they were doing after graduation, either going to college, a vocational school or the U.S. military. Nearly all students complied, he said.
Meanwhile, in classrooms, teachers returned to teaching the basics, including math, reading and phonics.
One final idea: Require national service in the final year of high school, Emanuel said.
He returns to themes of accomplishments frequently when discussing ideas that could be turned into policy for a future president, recounting things like free community college or raising the minimum wage.
"I'm not into talking, I'm into doing," he said. "I believe myself as a progressive. ... The premise of being a progressive is that the public has confidence in the government and they see government as affirmative," he said. "Today, the public doesn't think the government can run a one-car parade and you can't have progressive politics with a negative view like that."
Still, as Democrats struggle to find their footing in the first presidential election in 12 years that will not feature Trump on the ballot, Emanuel says the party's focus should be elsewhere.
"One of the problems is Trump is blinding us from dealing with the challenges," he said. "But I'd rather us as a party, not rather, but bring as much intellectual energy fighting for America as we do to fighting Trump and by being so focused on Donald Trump, we have lost the forest for the trees."
