Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) on Monday rejected the possible inclusion of former Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel (D) as a Cabinet under President-elect Joe Biden’s administration.
In a phone interview with The New York Times and a follow-up statement on Twitter, the freshman lawmaker said the nomination of Emanuel, who served with Biden in the Obama administration as the former president’s first chief of staff, be seen by liberals as a shot across the bow.
“Someone like Rahm Emanuel would be a pretty divisive pick,” she told the newspaper. “And it would signal, I think, a hostile approach to the grass-roots and the progressive wing of the party.”
On Twitter, Ocasio-Cortez expanded on her criticism, pointing to Emanuel’s battle with activists in Chicago over body camera footage depicting the police shooting of Laquan McDonald, a Black teen who was killed in 2014.
“We must govern with integrity and accountability. Laquan McDonald’s life mattered,” the congresswoman tweeted.
The Biden campaign declined a request for comment.
Speculation has swirled in recent days over what the forthcoming Biden Cabinet will look like. Those rumored to be under consideration for various positions range from left-leading figures such as Sens. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) to Republicans seen as opposed to President Trump, such as Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah).
Biden declared victory on Saturday after he was projected to win the state of Pennsylvania, and the election as a whole, by most major news networks. Trump has refused to concede, and vowed legal challenges in multiple states where he trails Biden in votes.