‘I don’t lose’: Rahm Emanuel makes an early pitch for the White House

{"text":[[{"start":10.28,"text":"From his days in Congress or mayor of Chicago to his spell as US ambassador to Japan, Rahm Emanuel does not sit still."}],[{"start":19.04,"text":"Now Barack Obama’s former White House chief of staff is criss-crossing the US testing the waters for something bigger: a possible run for president. In an interview in New York, the fast-talking politician said he had not made a decision — but if he ran, it would be a hard charge."}],[{"start":36.04,"text":"“I’ve never lost an election when my name is on the ballot. And I’ve never lost an election when I worked for either President Clinton, President Obama or helped make Nancy Pelosi Speaker,” Emanuel told the FT. “I don’t lose.”"}],[{"start":50.18,"text":"He started campaigning long before next month’s midterm elections, after which presidential contenders will start showing their hands. He has spent months visiting key states and honing a message on everything from education, healthcare and affordability to AI and foreign policy."}],[{"start":66.88,"text":"He will need to stand out. Emanuel is hardly a national household name, despite his renown in the political class. And he will face a large field of better-known Democrats that could include Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, California governor Gavin Newsom and former vice-president Kamala Harris."}],[{"start":85.32,"text":"How would the centrist pitch himself to voters?"}],[{"start":88.08,"text":"“Once the American dream and middle-class life became unaffordable is exactly when democracy became unstable,” he said. “You want to fix America? Fix the contract. It’s broken.”"}],[{"start":99.2,"text":"Americans were struggling to pay for education and housing, he said, forcing some to dip into their retirement accounts to supplement their income. “Healthcare was always a peace of mind and now it’s become a nightmare.”"}],[{"start":111.96,"text":"Most Democratic contenders will focus on affordability. But Emanuel said only results mattered. He touted his record of fixing a “failed education system” in Chicago, taking on insurance companies to get healthcare for 10mn children and fighting the National Rifle Association to get an assault-weapon ban."}],[{"start":129.4,"text":"“My whole life . . . I’ve gone into the biggest battles and the other guy walked out with a bloody nose. And that’s just one part of the anatomy I used to crack,” said Emanuel, nicknamed “Rahm-Bo” due to his hard-charging style."}],[{"start":142.32,"text":"Former staff generally fall into two camps. One finds him to be an intimidating, impatient taskmaster. The other appreciates his can-do attitude and willingness to trample on bureaucracy to get results."}],[{"start":153.72,"text":"Emanuel conceded that he used “fear” as a tool, but said he also used loyalty, focus and setting goals — all to get results."}],[{"start":160.96,"text":"“I win for a purpose,” Emanuel said. “Where I see failure, I fix it.”"}],[{"start":165.96,"text":"His wife Amy joked about having a fourth child that they would name “Patience” to give him a daily reminder. “I said to her, ‘Patience is a waste of time.’”"}],[{"start":174.24,"text":"His legendary impatience stemmed, he said, from a near-fatal childhood accident when he cut his finger on a meat slicer at Arby’s. Multiple blood infections and gangrene followed. Part of a finger was amputated."}],[{"start":186,"text":"Obama joked about his famously foul-mouthed lieutenant’s penchant for profane gestures: “It was his middle finger, so it rendered him mute.”"}],[{"start":null,"text":"

"}],[{"start":193.6,"text":"During seven weeks in hospital, three roommates died. “There isn’t a moment in that seven weeks where the clouds part and Beethoven’s Ninth starts playing but . . . something mentally changed in me, and emotionally,” he said."}],[{"start":205.56,"text":"“I made a mental note that if I got out of the hospital, I was going to make something of my life.”"}],[{"start":210.66,"text":"His ambition has created some sibling competition. His younger brother Ari is a high-profile Hollywood agent and his older brother Zeke is a prominent doctor and medical professor."}],[{"start":220.72,"text":"A biographer once wrote that Rahm was the most famous, Ari was the richest, but Zeke would be the most important. “Disagree!” he said emphatically and stopped, adding that saying more could trigger a “very ugly Thanksgiving dinner”."}],[{"start":233.68,"text":"After months of wrestling with some of America’s traditional big issues, Emanuel has staked out positions on more recent ones, including AI — a “double-edged sword” technology. He wants bold action."}],[{"start":247.04,"text":"“We’re driving around at night without our headlights on a wet pavement at 90 miles an hour with one hand on the steering wheel . . . I’ve never seen CEOs of an industry ask for regulation and oversight. They’re begging for it,” Emanuel said."}],[{"start":261.34,"text":"He has spent time with the leaders of the top AI labs, including Anthropic’s Dario Amodei, OpenAI’s Sam Altman and Grok’s Elon Musk. Emanuel said there needed to be a “referee” to make sure they did not benefit at the expense of all Americans."}],[{"start":276.96,"text":"“This is going to require a vigilance equal to the rapidness of the way that technology is changing that ensures that not five guys who are all on the spectrum win and everybody else loses,” he said."}],[{"start":289.44,"text":"But it is on US policy towards Israel that Emanuel has taken one of his boldest stances."}],[{"start":295.16,"text":"In a speech in Israel earlier this year, he blamed Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu — who once called him a “self-loathing Jew” — for tarnishing the country’s image in the US. He has also said that Israel should pay for US weapons, as other allies do. That has aligned him more closely with some Democrats who are otherwise more progressive on foreign policy than Emanuel."}],[{"start":318,"text":"During his time in Tokyo, Emanuel took a tough stance on China. He said he would push back against Beijing’s efforts to use economic and military pressure to weaken countries such as Japan."}],[{"start":329.6,"text":"“Our strategy is . . . to use our allies and alliance system to isolate China rather than have China isolate another country,” said Emanuel."}],[{"start":338.44,"text":"On Taiwan, he would continue the US policy of “strategic ambiguity” that refused to say whether the US military would intervene in a conflict with China."}],[{"start":347.24,"text":"Emanuel said the next president would have to work hard to restore relations with US allies. “There’s no reset button. This is more like a dial, rather than a flip of the switch,” he said, but stressed that the US was still an “indispensable power”."}],[{"start":363.12,"text":"“There isn’t somebody that immediately replaces the US in the Nato apparatus, and there isn’t somebody that automatically can step into our shoes because the countries in the Indo-Pacific want a counterweight to an untethered China.”"}],[{"start":376.24,"text":"Asked what the Biden administration got wrong on foreign policy, he said it was smart to release intelligence about Russia’s plan to invade Ukraine — but that it did not do enough to deter Vladimir Putin."}],[{"start":387.8,"text":"“What I think was missing . . . we never moved any resources to indicate to Russia there was a cost if they did this,” Emanuel said."}],[{"start":395.6,"text":"Projecting power is a feature for Emanuel. Summing up his pitch to become the next president if he decided to take the plunge, he said Americans wanted a candidate with candour, authenticity and strength."}],[{"start":406.76,"text":"“In a post-Trump world, that’s what the public will be looking for,” Emanuel said. “And, if not, I’ll just go fly fishing.”"}],[{"start":416,"text":""}]],"url":"https://audio.ftcn.net.cn/album/a_1792776774_3225.mp3"}