Emanuel nomination advances despite Democratic opposition

The Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Wednesday voted to advance Rahm Emanuel’s nomination for ambassador to Japan, though the former chief of staff to President Obama saw two Democrats oppose him.

Emanuel’s nomination passed out of the committee by voice vote, but Democratic Sens. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) and Ed Markey (D-Mass.) both voted against him. 

The Democratic votes were not enough to stop Emanuel’s nomination from being favorably recommended to the floor because Sen. Jim Risch (R-Idaho), the ranking member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, backs him, as does Sen. Bill Hagerty (R-Tenn.). 

Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), who is not a member of the panel, also backs the former Chicago mayor’s nomination. 

Merkley said he would oppose Emanuel ahead of the vote because of his handling of a 2014 investigation into a police shooting of an unarmed Black teenager.

“Black Lives Matter,” Merkley said in a statement ahead of the committee vote, announcing he would oppose the mayor’s nomination based on “the input of civil rights leaders, criminal justice experts, and local elected officials.”

Markey did not provide a comment on his “no” vote.

Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) voted “no” on all 14 nominees that were considered by the committee on Wednesday, including Emanuel. 

President Biden’s decision to nominate Emanuel has garnered pushback from progressives and civil rights activists over accusations that he suppressed the release of critical evidence in the police shooting of 17-year-old Laquan McDonald until after he was reelected amid a tight political contest.

Video showed McDonald walking away from police when an officer opened fire.

Emanuel addressed the controversy during his confirmation hearing last month, saying “there’s not a day or a week that has gone by” that he hasn’t thought about McDonald’s death, but defended his actions at the time as trying to not prejudice the judicial process.

“As you know, there’s a longstanding protocol and practice that nothing’s released in the middle of an investigation for fear of either prejudicing a witness or endangering a prosecution. That was the practice, longstanding, not just in Chicago but across the country,” he said, adding that he had tried to implement new practices of oversight and accountability following the controversy.

“It is clear to me those changes were inadequate to the level of distrust. There were at the best marginal. I thought I was addressing the issue and I clearly missed the level of distrust and skepticism that existed. And that’s on me,” he said.

Nearly all of Biden’s diplomatic nominees are stalled in the Senate over blanket holds by Sens. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and Josh Hawley (R-Mo.). 

Cruz is opposing votes for State Department nominees in opposition to the Biden administration’s decision to waive sanctions on a Russian natural gas pipeline.

Hawley has called for the resignation of Secretary of State Antony Blinken and national security adviser Jake Sullivan over their handling of the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan.