Former White House Chief of Staff & Former US Ambassador to Japan Rahm Emanuel Talks Trump’s $5,000 Proposal

SPEAKER_1 (0:02)

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Kailey Leinz (0:07)

I'm pleased to say joining us now here on Bloomberg TV and Radio is Rahm Emanuel, the former White House Chief of Staff, former Mayor of Chicago, and of course, former US Ambassador to Japan as well.

Ambassador, welcome back to Bloomberg TV and Radio. I appreciate the time, sir. I would love first just your reaction to what we heard from the President last night and this notion of a $5,000 dividend paid out to Americans. If that's what Republicans are promising, what should Democrats be promising?

Rahm Emanuel (0:35)

Well, let me back up here.

The two things that Democrats and President Trump agree on is that President Trump should make this election about himself. So there's bipartisanship for you.

We want this to be a referendum on Trump and the Republican and their stewardship of the country over the last 12, rather the last 18 months. And it's clear that Donald Trump and the Republicans want this to be a referendum on Donald Trump. Second, I think the American people are going to see right through this gimmick like they've seen through everything Donald Trump's gimmicks in the past. This, as we like to say in Chicago, this dog won't hunt. It won't work in convincing people. And what we went to offer is a one-time $5,000. It's actually a permanent tax cut. And it's also a permanent alleviation to your healthcare. And that $5,000 doesn't make up for all the cuts the president made in healthcare costs. Energy prices, as you well know, are about $1.25 more a gallon than they were just a year ago before the president went into a aimless and endless war with no purpose and no clear strategy. So I think the American people, I give them a lot of credit. They're common sense folks. They're gonna see right through this gimmick and right through the politics of this. And the good news is you finally have bipartisanship. This will be a referendum election on Donald Trump.

Kailey Leinz (1:56)

Well, if you have bipartisanship there, it's hard to find it in other places, certainly. The president also talked last night a lot.

Rahm Emanuel (2:04)

I hope you picked up on the cynicism and sarcasm there that it didn't go over.

Kailey Leinz (2:08)

Yes, it was well understood. I'd like to ask you as well about some of the other comments that not just the president, but frankly, a lot of the speakers on the stage last night, and I would imagine we'll get more of the same tonight, had about Democrats specifically, casting them as far left extremists, as socialists or communists. Even if that obviously is not universally true, does the rise of DSA, either backed or member candidates, create a major problem for your party in this cycle and the cycles to come?

Rahm Emanuel (2:40)

Well, I mean, you've heard, I've said this before. So one, you have a progressive wing of the party and a pragmatic wing of the party. We'll battle out things like we have.

Progressives want Medicare for all. I believe and I've advocated for early retirees buying into Medicare. We'll have a good health care debate about how to expand health care coverage, which is core to the Democrats.

The Democratic Socialists are a separate party. They're not Democrats. They're an extreme wing. They had a convention in Chicago.

Kailey Leinz (3:07)

But they're winning Democratic primaries is the thing.

Rahm Emanuel (3:10)

No, let's just finish. No, and they're also losing them, which you also have to cover. They are also losing them. And they are losing them across the country. And the fact is that they had a separate party. You're going to run in November. That's where you should run. Party's not a vehicle for you.

You believe in defunding the police. We don't believe that as Democrats. You believe in open borders. We don't believe that as Democrats.

You believe in letting people out of prisons. We believe violent criminals should be behind bars. We don't believe that. So run in November, we'll see you. Now, that's the extreme.

What Democrats want to talk about is what Republicans have made mainstream. The corruption that has become normalized in this White House that is robbing the American people. That's the mainstream of the Republican Party, where you have to pay for the access and you get contracts based on your contribution to the president's account. That's mainstream in the Republican Party. What's also mainstream in the Republican Party is a war and an endless war without purpose or design or area. You have a president of the United States who's thought about redistricting. A president of the United States who's thought about mail-in ballots and how to prevent them. A president of the United States who's thought about dark money in elections. He never spent the time to think like that strategically before he decided to go yes into war in Iran without a strategy for the straight or hermous. So what is normalized and become mainstream in the Republican Party? Let's talk about it. What's extreme, which is the DSA, they are not part of the Democratic Party and I could not, and other Democratic leaders could not be clear about that. So I have no problem talking about that. I've been absolutely clear, it's a separate party. What we need to talk about is what has become mainstream in the Republican Party, and that's their acceptance of a culture of corruption, which is antithetical to everything that capitalism is built on, which is about the rule of law, not about corruption around the opinion of one man.