Rep.-elect Jamaal Bowman (D-N.Y.) said on Thursday that the notion of figures such as former Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel and former Broad Foundation President Bruce Reed serving in the Biden administration “makes my skin crawl.”
Bowman told CNN he was heartened to see the diversity in President-elect Joe Biden’s appointments so far, but added, “I think ideological diversity is most key here, and we need to make sure that President-elect Joe Biden is picking as many progressives to his Cabinet as possible.”
Bowman added that he was pleased with some of those selections Biden has named, such as former Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen and former Secretary of State John Kerry, but “when I hear names like Rahm Emanuel and Bruce Reed, it makes my skin crawl. Rahm Emanuel covered up the murder of Laquan McDonald as mayor in Chicago, he closed elementary schools, he closed mental health institutions.”
Reed, meanwhile, “is a deficit hawk and a master of austerity budgets,” Bowman added. “So we cannot have anyone like that in a Biden Cabinet, especially as we deal with the coronavirus and as we deal with an economic depression and racial reckoning in our time.”
Emanuel, who also served as former President Obama’s chief of staff was reported to be considering for secretary of Transportation, was widely condemned for his handling of the 2014 killing of McDonald, a Black teenager in Chicago. Police officer Jason Van Dyke was originally not charged, but footage eventually revealed that he fatally shot McDonald as the teen walked away. Van Dyke was found guilty of second-degree murder in 2018.
Reed was widely reported to be a contender for the Biden administration’s Office of Management and Budget, but Center for American Progress head Neera Tanden was announced for the role last week.