Don’t let Rahm Emanuel’s ‘Chicago will always be a sanctuary city’ stunt fool you. Monday’s anti-Trump press conference was his unofficial re-election kick-off for a third term as Chicago’s mayor.
After all, it’s not as if Rahm is now going to be named White House Chief of Staff in the Hillary Clinton Administration. If he has any presidential ambitions for 2020 and beyond, what’s he got to lose?
I know something about this. I was Rahm’s GOP opponent in 2015 and almost defeated him by busting the campaign finance caps in the mayor’s race, forcing him into a historic runoff election.
How does Rahm Emanuel believe he will win a third term as Chicago mayor? It isn’t likely that Chicago’s black community will be conned by Rahm a third time so he desperately needs Hispanic voters and he needs them now. "To all those who are, after Tuesday's election [of Donald Trump], very nervous and filled with anxiety as we've spoken to, you are safe in Chicago, you are secure in Chicago and you are supported in Chicago," Emanuel told Hispanic leaders and their refugee coalition counterparts. "Chicago will always be a sanctuary city."
That’s right out of the George Soros handbook.
Monday’s media day was another perfectly scripted media-driven ploy to help an unpopular mayor who has failed Chicago’s black community, its Democratic base, and Chicago taxpayers in general.
To wit: Did you know that 40 Chicago-area radio stations also gifted Emanuel — upon his request — with 30 minutes of commercial-free airtime Monday night to deliver his scripted re-election pitch? Did you know it was billed as a radio “town hall” meeting but no listeners could call in to ask questions? Did you know that the Twitter questions Rahm answered were pre-screened?
At no time was Rahm held accountable for Chicago’s murder rate, which is at its highest in a decade? No. He just bleated his tired speaking points on crime. Was Rahm asked about his cover-up of the Laquan McDonald investigation or his secret payoff to McDonald’s family? No. Was he asked about the $600 million in new taxes on Chicago taxpayers while increasing his own mayoral office budget? No, instead he painted a rosy picture of Chicago’s finances under Rahm rule and that is an outright lie.
But most of Rahm’s pals in the Chicago media haven’t said boo about any of this.
Emanuel is no stranger to fake news programming. In 2014, his Hollywood agent brother, Ari, helped him engineer a glossy eight-episode infomercial, billed as a documentary, on CNN. In addition to the $100K per episode cost, CNN spent millions of advertising dollars promoting the fake documentary on Chicago buses and billboards, plastered with Rahm's mug, and the entire project was coordinated by Rahm’s mayoral staff.
If Trump makes good his threat on sanctuary cities, Chicago will lose another billion dollars in federal funding at a time of terrible fiscal peril.
Not that Emanuel will care. To him, it’s just the cost of getting re-elected in a city that no longer works. Voters will have no choice but to foot his re-election bill.
William J. Kelly is an American producer, television and radio host, commentator, media strategist, and critic. In 1994, he ran for U.S. Congress. In 2015, he made waves when he busted the campaign finance caps in the Chicago mayor’s race. He is the founder of RevDigital, an Emmy award-winning TV and documentary production house. Kelly is a frequent contributor to The Washington Times, American Spectator, and others. He is the midday host of "The Citizen Kelly Show" on AM 1590, Chicago. For more of his reports, Go Here Now.